i 




Class u 6 G 4- 
Gopiglit ]^° 



CQFSRIGHT DEPOSR 



LIFE AND TIMES OF 

ALVAH CROCKER 



LIFE AND TIMES OF 



ALVAH CROCKER 



BY 



WILLIAM BOND WHEELWRIGHT 




PRIVATELY PRINTED 

BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 

MCMXXIII 



El (0^4- 



Copyright, ig2J 
'Doug/as Crocker 



2000 copies of this book 

were printed in May ig2J on •^Antique 

'Biography "Book Taper, manufaSlured especially for this 

edition by Crocker, Hurbank and Company, 

Fitchburg, 'Mass. 



Compiled, arranged and printed 

by direSiion of 

Walton Advertising £3" 'Printing Company 

^Boston, <JiCass. 



m -G ^^^^^ 



IC1A704866 



■^Affectionately 'Dedicated 

TO THE MEMORY OF MY FRIEND 

ALVAH CROCKER 

A GREAT-GRANDSON OF HONORABLE ALVAH CROCKER 

INHERITING THE PATRIOTISM AND 

FINEST TRAITS OF HIS ANCESTRY 

HE LAID DOWN HIS LIFE FOR HIS COUNTRY 

AND HER ALLIES IN THE WORLD WAR 

W. B. W. 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER I 

PAGE 

Ancestry and Youth i 

Arrival of first train in Fitchburg. — Crocker a paper-maker at eight 
years of age. — The Crocker ancestry in America. — Captain John 
Crocker builds first ropewalk in Newburyport. — Benjamin Crocker his 
son. — Deacon Samuel Crocker moves to Leominster. — Alvah Crocker 
born 1801. — Events of the period. — School days at Groton. — ^The 
portrait of Captain John Crocker discovered by Alvah Crocker. 



CHAPTER H 
Early Business Experience, 1823-36 9 

Alvah Crocker's start in Fitchburg. — Early business difficulties and 
successes. — Marriage. — First public services. — Contemporary events. 
— Early methods of transportation. — Crocker conceives of the Fitch- 
burg Railroad. — Election and record as Representative to the General 
Court of Massachusetts. 

CHAPTER HI 
The Fitchburg Railroad IS 

Planning of the Fitchburg Railroad. — ^The methods of promotion. — 
Incorporation of Fitchburg Railroad, 1842.— Crocker goes to England 
to purchase rails. — Controversy over location of the Fitchburg Depot. 
— Arrival of first train, March 5, 1845. — Inception and incorporation 
of Vermont and Massachusetts Railroad, March 15, 1844. — Crocker 
elected president of road, 1845. — Speech of Charles H. B. Snow at 
Centennial Celebration of Fitchburg, 1864. 

CHAPTER IV 
Alvah Crocker's Personality 29 

Quotations from his diary: On his birthday, October 14, 1843.— The 
death of friends, and a visit to Burlington. — October 19, 1843— Visit 
to Montpelier.— Tuesday, October 31, 1843— A typical day's work.— 



viii CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Saturday, November 4, 1843 — Visit to Brattleboro. — January 23 and 
24 — Notes on location of Fitchburg Depot. — January 26, 1844 — 
Contract for passenger cars. — February 12, 1844 to March 23 — Mis- 
sion to Washington. — April 24 — Interview with Messrs. Baldwins 
and Norris Locomotive Works. — April 29, 1844 — A visit to Mount 
Vernon. — July 8, 1844 — On the sale of the Crockerville Mill. — July 20, 
28 and 29. — October 14, 1844 — On his birthday. — March 13, 1845 — 
On the opening of the Fitchburg Railroad. — March 24, 1845 — On 
accepting the presidency of the Vermont and Massachusetts Railroad. 
— April, 1844 — Mr. Crocker's impressions of President Polk. — May 
14, 1845 — On resignation as president of the Fitchburg Railroad. — 
August 25, 1845 — On a visit to Newburyport. — October 14, 1845 — 
Thoughts on his birthday. 



CHAPTER V 
Business Interests 37 

Firm of Crocker, Burbank & Co. established 1850. — Gardner S. 
Burbank. — ^The Crocker mills; how they were acquired. — Charles T. 
Crocker admitted to firm, 1855. — George F. Fay and Samuel E. 
Crocker become partners in Crocker, Burbank & Co., 1863. — Alvah 
Crocker's other" business interests. — Rollstone Bank and the Fitchburg 
Savings Bank, etc. — The Civil War. — Appointed by Governor Andrew 
to care for the wounded Massachusetts soldiers. — Crocker's speech at 
Centennial Celebration of Fitchburg, 1864. — Early activities in regard 
to the Hoosac Tunnel. — ^The founding of Turners Falls. 



CHAPTER VI 
The Hoosac Tunnel Route 43 

Petition for construction of Troy and Greenfield Railroad, 1848. — 
New York acts to connect Troy with the proposed Hoosac Tunnel by 
railroad. — Opposition of the Western Railroad. — Incorporation of 
Troy and Greenfield Railroad. — Appeal for State Loan, 1851. — First 
contracts for construction of Hoosac Tunnel, 1855. — Construction 
halted, 1861. — Speech of Alvah Crocker in Massachusetts Senate on 
a bill for the more speedy completion of the Troy and Greenfield Rail- 
road, 1862. — The State takes over the construction of the road and 
Tunnel. — Mr. Crocker appointed commissioner and acting superintend- 
ent. — Contract for completion of Tunnel awarded to Walter and 
Francis Shanly. — ^The completion of the Hoosac Tunnel. 



CONrENTS ix 



CHAPTER VII 

PAGE 

Congressman Crocker 55 

Mr. Crocker elected to Congress, January, 1872, to fill incompleted 
term.— Letter to the Fitchburg Sentinel on renomination of Mr. Crocker 
in September, 1872. — Re-election. — Remarks of Mr. Crocker in 
Congress: On the post-office appropriation bill; on the duty on coal; 
on the subject of soda ash and bleaching powder; on the tariff; on the 
salary bill; on the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia; on removing 
the bar at the mouth of the Mississippi River.— The Christmas recess, 
1874. — Fatal illness and death, December 26, 1874. — A retrospect. 



APPENDIX 
Crocker, Burbank & Co., since 1874 75 

Memorial addresses on the life and character of Alvah Crocker, as published 
by order of Congress, 1875: Address of Mr. Dawes; resolutions; address 
of Benjamin F. Butler.^Proceedings in the Senate: Address by Hon. 
William B. Washburn of Massachusetts; resolutions; address of Mr. 
Wadleigh of New Hampshire 75 

Letter of Alvah Crocker, 1844, to the Hon. George Evans, Chairman of 
the Committee of Finance of the Senate, on the subject of remitting 
the duty on railway iron 85 

Report as commissioner on the Hoosac Tunnel, 1868 97 

Speech on Inland Navigation 112 



iH 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

FACING 
PAGE 

Alvah Crocker Frontispiece 

Captain John Crocker i 

Two Views of Old Fitchburg 9 --' 

The Fitchburg Fire Department about 1851 13 ~^ 

Map of Fitchburg, 1851 15 • 

Fitchburg in 1856 17 >/ 

The Railroad System of New England the Year after the 

Opening of the Fitchburg Railroad 21 

First Passenger Railroad Depot in Fitchburg 25 

Bank Note which shows Alvah Crocker as he appeared when 

President of the Rollstone Bank 29 

Main Street, Fitchburg, in 1867 33 

Gardner S. Burbank 37 

The Old Stone Mill, Fitchburg 39, 

Rollstone National Bank, Fitchburg 41 

Charles Thomas Crocker 43 • 

East End of the Hoosac Tunnel during Construction ... 49 

West End of the Hoosac Tunnel 53 

View of Fitchburg, 1870 55 ■ 

Compressed-Air Power Plant, Deerfield River 61 

Steam-driven Air Compressors at West End of the Tunnel 65 

The Burleigh Drill at Work 65 

Entrance to the West Shaft 69 

Reproduction of an Old Print showing Profile View of the 

Hoosac Tunnel 71 

Mills of Crocker, Burbank & Co 75 

Manuscript Letter of Alvah Crocker 81 

Columbus, First Locomotive through Hoosac Tunnel .... 89 



INTRODUCTION 

IT would be difficult to express the purpose of this book in better words 
than the following taken from a memoir of the late Samuel Appleton: 
"Of lives of statesmen, poets, artists, literary, military, and professional 
men of all sorts, we have enough, but of eminent and successful merchants, 
men who have made commerce the sphere of their extensive activity and 
usefulness, we have few permanent records . . . yet commerce has had its 
heroes, its saints, and martyrs, — men who, along its dusty paths, in its 
busy counting-houses, amid its varied enterprises, have exhibited the 
noblest qualities of intellect and of heart. ... To these men, these noble 
and benevolent merchants, literature, learning, science, humanity in all 
the instrumentalities that would promote its progress, in all the institu- 
tions that would alleviate its sufferings, owes a debt which cannot be too 
gratefully acknowledged." 

Among such men was Alvah Crocker, whose public works — the build- 
ing of the Fitchburg Railroad, its extension to the West through the Hoosac 
Tunnel, the establishment of a great paper manufactory, and the found- 
ing of Turners Falls — have done so much for Massachusetts. And yet the 
lesson of his life, the inspiration of his achievement, would soon be lost 
unless recorded. 

His works have been, so far, his only monument; but few remain who 
know them as his works. Still fewer realize, when they travel over the 
railroad that he built, how much they owe to one who began in a paper 
mill at the age of eight, who added to a meagre schooling a fund of knowledge 
such as few possess, and by sheer force of character overcame the strongest 
opposition of men and mountains! 

It is nearly fifty years since Alvah Crocker died, and just a century 
since he began his career in Fitchburg; so it seems a fitting time that the 
obligation to his memory should be paid in a memoir, that shall preserve 
the record and inspiration of his life for posterity. 

The author desires to acknowledge the kindness shown in facilitating 
the preparation of this book by Charles Fosdick, Esq., Frederic A. Currier, 
Esq., Edward F. Kimball, Esq., Miss Theresa N. Garfield, Librarian of the 
Fitchburg Historical Society, Julius H. Tuttle, Esq., Librarian of the Massa- 
chusetts Historical Society, and Miss Harriet Swift of the Boston Public 
Library; and also to acknowledge his indebtedness to the following authori- 



xi V INTR OD UCnOH^ 

ties and records: "The Old Records of the Town of Fitchburg, Massachu- 
setts, 1764-1855," Walter Alonzo Davis, Compiler; Fitchburg Historical 
Society, Proceedings and Papers Relating to the Town, Vols. 1-4; "History 
of the Town of Fitchburg," Rufus Campbell Torrey; "The Great Bore: 
a Souvenir of the Hoosac Tunnel," J. E. Harrison; "Fitchburg Past and 
Present," Emerson; Address delivered at Fiftieth Anniversary of Tufts 
College, George Sewall Boutwell; Report on Hoosac Tunnel, December 
20, 1867, Benjamin H. Latrobe, Consulting Engineer; Journal House of 
Representatives of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 1836, Vol. 58, 
1837, Vol. 59, 1842, Vol. 64, 1843, Vol. 65; Massachusetts Journal of the 
Senate of the Commonwealth, 1886, Vol. 87; Congressional Globe, 42d 
Congress, 2d Session, 1 871-1872, Part H; House Proceedings 42d Congress, 
2d Session, 1872; Congressional Record, 43d Congress, ist Session, Vol. 
Ill, Vol. 114. 




CAPTAIN JOHN CROCKER 



LIFE AND TIMES 
OF 

ALVAH CROCKER 

Chapter I 
ANCESTRY 

MARCH 5, 1845, was a day of great significance to the town of 
Fitchburg, Massachusetts. The crowd which had collected 
about its first and newly completed railroad terminal listened 
impatiently for the shrill whistle of the locomotive, about to herald not 
alone the arrival of the first train in Fitchburg, but the dawn as well of a 
new era of prosperity for the community. Many in the gathering had 
doubtless never seen a train of cars before. Others had made the tedious 
five-and-one-half-hour trip by stage coach to Lowell, and thence by rail 
to Boston. It is safe to say that the arrival then, of this pioneer engine 
from Boston, meant far more to the inhabitants of Fitchburg than the 
first appearance of an airship in our times. As the little train drew up in 
"Depot Square," a tall, triumphant man of forty-four descended from the 
locomotive, to be greeted "by a committee of reception and by citizens." 
This was none other than Alvah Crocker, to whose clear vision and unre- 
mitting energy the Fitchburg Railroad owed its existence; a man destined 
to become a dominant figure of his time in Northern Massachusetts, and 
one whom posterity has yet to appreciate for his full worth. 

Certainly there was little in the early environment of Alvah Crocker 
which gave promise of shaping him for a successful business career. Other 
youths under similar conditions became, at most, skilled artisans. He 
enjoyed none of the educational advantages which are actually thrust upon 
a modern boy. He received no consecutive preparatory school training. 
For him a college education was entirely out of the question. Indeed 
schools of engineering or graduate departments of business administra- 
tion were then among the unborn conceptions of university curricula. 

As a matter of fact, the training that fell to the youthful Crocker's 
lot would now actually be prohibited by law, since he began hard manual 
labor at the age of eight. 



2 LIFE ^ND TIMES OF ^LVAH CROCKETi^ 

We have a brief account of these beginnings in his own words, taken 
from a speech which he delivered in the House of Representatives in 1872: 

"Sixty-two years ago this coming month, I was put into a paper factory 
at the tender age of eight years. I lived with my mother, without allow- 
ance for board, and worked twelve hours daily at twenty-five cents per 
day. My only remission from labor with the exception of a single winter 
was six weeks a year, when I was allowed to go to school. In the latter 
part of the first ten years of my factory life, compensation being some- 
what increased, I had sixty dollars a year with my board." 

It is in vain that we scan this program for an answer to Alvah Crocker's 
mental growth. If any one should arise to propose, in our times, such a 
training as a good preparation for a successful career, he would probably 
be instantly placed under observation in a psychopathic hospital. We 
are indeed forced to look elsewhere than to environment for the germs of 
success with which Crocker was inoculated, and where else can we look 
than to his heredity? 
h-\ Captain John Crocker, the great-grandfather of Alvah Crocker, was 
born in England in 1692, and after coming to this country became a citizen 
of Newburyport, where he was both a skipper and a ship-owner. In those 
days the town was famous for its shipbuilding and was one of the most 
active ports in the colonies. While we have few details of Captain Crocker's 
career, we know that he was a man to see and grasp opportunity, as evi- 
denced by the fact that in 1748 he obtained permission from the town of 
Newburyport to erect a ropewalk, which was the first to be built there. 
He married in 1727 Mary Savage, daughter of Thomas Savage, and had 
eight children, four of whom were sons. Benjamin, their third child, was 
born in Boston in 1732 and was reared and lived in Newburyport. Like 
his father he was interested in shipping, and was a part owner with him of 
the brig Ranger in 1758. Captain John Crocker died in 1763 and is buried 
beside his wife in St. Ann's Churchyard. 

Benjamin was married September 9, 1761, to Sarah Somerby, daughter 
of Samuel Somerby, at Hampton, a nearby town in New Hampshire, 
and had five daughters and four sons. The eighth child. Deacon Samuel 
Crocker (father of Alvah), was born in Newburyport, March 22, 1774, 
two years before his father's death. Samuel was brought up in New- 
buryport, where he attended school, afterwards learning the paper-making 
trade, and removed to Leominster, Massachusetts, in 1796, in his twenty- 
second year. He took employment with Nichols and Kendall, who had 
just started the first paper mill there. The site was on the Nashua River 
slightly below the present property of the George W. Wheelwright Paper 



LIFE ^ND TIMES OF ^LVAH CROCKEK^ 3 

Company. In 1801 the firm built a second mill below the first, but the 
partnership was dissolved in 1804. Samuel Crocker continued in the 
employ of Jonas Kendall, who acquired the business. The house in which 
he lived and reared his family still stands, and is leased as a working- 
man's house by The Wheelwright Paper Company. 

In 1798 Samuel married Comfort Jones, daughter of Samuel and Hannah n 
(Adams) Jones of Medway, Massachusetts, and had the following children: 
Alvah, born October 14, 1801 ; Phineas, October 21, 1804; Chandler, Novem- 
ber 3, 1806; Thomas, March 13, 1809; Varamus E., February 7, 1812; 
Samuel Somerby, October 3, 1813; William Plummer, November 25, 1817. ij 

Deacon Samuel Crocker's outstanding characteristic was his religious 
zeal. He has been described as "stern, uncompromising and conscien- 
tious." At the age of forty-three (the same age at which his son was in- 
terested in railroad construction). Deacon Crocker while reading the Bible 
at family worship came to one of the accounts of baptism in the New 
Testament. His wife interrupted him with, "There, husband, the Bap- 
tists are right!" This led to careful consideration of the subject and a 
change in belief. He walked to Harvard, applied for admission to the 
Baptist Church of that town, and was received after short delay. This 
led to further conversions in Leominster, and the founding there of the 
Baptist Church, with which Deacon Samuel and his son Deacon Samuel 
S. Crocker were so long identified. The elder Crocker and his wife were 
both active and influential in the church. He was an evangelist in dis- 
position, and held prayer meetings and conference meetings in his own 
house and elsewhere, and preached the gospel frequently. 

It is said that the only books in his home besides the Bible were "Ed- 
wards on Religious Affection," "Lives of Watts and Doddridge," "King 
Philip's Indian Wars," and "The Westminster Assemblies Lesser Cate- 
chism." Mrs. Crocker was a direct descendant in the sixth generation 
from Henry Adams of Braintree, the forefather of most of the old American 
families of this surname. Thus the Puritan traditions were naturally 
paramount in the family life. From the early age at which the children 
went to work it is evident that the family's accumulation of this world's 
goods was small. 

In Lewis's "History of Worcester County," it is stated "Mrs. Crocker 
was a descendant of the celebrated Adams family and inherited all its self- 
reliance and independence of character. Nobly struggling under adverse 
circumstances, and unwilling to receive assistance not absolutely neces- 
sary, she aimed to nurture the children in habits of honest industry and to 
accustom them to exertion, not only from necessity, but also from choice. 



4 LIFE ^ND TIMES OF ^LVJH CROCKETi^ 

Such an education as they received proved to be a greater instrument of 
temporal success than large fortunes in the hands of numberless children 
of luxury and ease." The boys were sent out to work for farmers during 
the summer months in their childhood, and in this way the insufficient 
income of the father was made to cover their necessities, while early habits 
of industry and thrift were inculcated. If as some one has put it "genius 
is the ability to work hard and long and well," we have perhaps discovered 
the secret of the genius of Alvah Crocker. Inheriting the traditional 
New England traits from hardy self-reliant ancestors, his natural physical 
exuberance being early harnessed by the necessity of work, he started life 
under no handicaps of ease and with no false conceptions of its meaning. 
He knew full well the meaning of the words "In the sweat of thy face 
shalt thou eat bread." 

The territory of the United States at the time of Alvah Crocker's birth 
in 1801 comprised only that portion east of the Mississippi River, with 
the exception of Florida and a small portion of what is now the State of 
Louisiana. In all, there were then seventeen organized States with a total 
population of five and a third million, one-fifth of whom were slaves. 

The country Was on the eve of enormous expansion through the Louisi- 
ana Purchase of 1803, and during Crocker's lifetime our sovereignty came 
to embrace all present possessions with the exception of Hawaii, Samoa 
and the insular acquirements which were incident to the Spanish War. 
Virginia held first place in population, followed by Pennsylvania, New 
York and Massachusetts. Nine-tenths of the population resided east of 
the Alleghany Mountains. 

Industrially the dawn of a new era was close at hand. Transportation, 
while dependent still upon sailing vessels and stage coaches, had witnessed 
the first attempts of John Fitch, James Ramsey and Oliver Evans to harness 
the power of steam. The paper machine in its primitive form had been 
invented by Louis Robert at Essonnes, France, in 1799 and was first put to 
practical use in England through the engineering skill of Bryan Donkin 
and the financial assistance of Henry and Sealey Fourdrinier in 1804. 
Manufacturers dependent solely on water power were cropping up here 
and there, but the pursuits of the country were mainly agricultural and 
marine. 

The nation had scarcely recovered from the birth pains consequent 
upon the turmoil of Revolution, and Thomas Jefferson had taken the oath 
of office as third President of the Union. 

Probably it was as well for the Crocker family that Deacon Samuel 
had turned his back on Newburyport, so soon to experience the blight 



LIFE ^AND TIMES OF <lALVJH CR0CKE%^ 5 

of the Embargo Act of 1807, which while ruining its shipping industry- 
diverted the attention of New England to manufacturing. Happy also 
the choice of his trade as paper maker proved to be for the son, who at the 
early age of eight followed in his father's footsteps. In the first quarter 
of the century the industry was still conducted largely by hand, but the 
principles learned through long years of toil enabled the younger Crocker 
with his active mind and energetic enterprise to meet successfully every 
industrial change, while his disposition inclined him to welcome every new 
invention of which his practical experience was quick to recognize the 
merit. 

The narrow limits of his father's library were fortunately extended 
through the kindness of their employer, Israel Nichols, who placed his 
own library, a good one for those times, at the disposal of his inquiring 
apprentice. Alvah Crocker was determined to wring an education from 
this barren soil, and though he generally received but eight weeks' school- 
ing yearly, he managed by night study to keep along with the best of his 
class. At the age of sixteen, having accumulated sixty dollars, he entered 
Groton Academy, and remained as long as this limited appropriation 
lasted. He is said to have cherished hopes of attending Harvard College, 
but the liberal tendencies of this institution had offended the orthodox 
Deacon Crocker, and whether this was a decisive factor in the abandon- 
ment of his hopes or not is a matter of conjecture. 

The family traditions concerning the boyhood of Alvah are fragmentary, 
but by piecing them together we may safely infer that he was vigorous, 
self-reliant and wide awake. Two letters from a Groton schoolmate, 
I. Burrage by name, would also indicate that he shared with his companion 
a fondness for literature and an appreciation of humor. 

The first was written from Groton in 1819; the second, dated May 26, 
1824, from Brown University, shows that the friendship continued after 
the boys had been parted by circumstances, while their preservation indi- 
cates a warm regard for this youthful tie. 

Both letters are sufficiently lively and revealing to warrant their inclu- 
sion in this narrative. 

Groton, May 8, 1819. 
Friend: 

Not with the sublime effusions of an Ossian, nor the splendid strains of a Pope, 
do I now address you; a far inferior style must be the choice of one, whose head is 
as uncultivated, as yonder sand-hill, & who possesses such an intolerably poor 
nervous system, that with all his powers he is scarcely able, even in a north or 
north-west breeze, to keep it within bounds, but when Notus arises Hue miserande 



6 LIFE <^ND TIMES OF ^LVJH CROCKE%^ 

puer, away fly all restraints, down drop all reason, sense & abilities, and left deeply 
wallowing, like Bunyan's Pilgrim, in the Slough of Despond. Under the dominion 
of the above maladies, you must be sensible, friend, that it would be next to 
impossibility for me to write anything either instructing or amusing. But as you 
have the history of my Uncle Toby's famous siege, you must have learnt that, 
when we cannot do one way, another must be tried, thus making use of different 
expedients; now as this happened to pop into my head just at beginning my epistle, 
I concluded that if by reason of my several debilities, I were debarred from the use 
of great author's style, little ones must do; so Trim, when there was no lead to make 
mortars, made the tops of a pair of jack-boots answer his purpose. Agreeably 
with the foregoing resolution, I determined to begin with the plain John Trot 
style of "Yours of the 14th inst. came safely to hand," but alas! wretched man 
how liable thou art to be disappointed! Just as my fancy was wound up to the 
highest pitch, & I had begun to consider myself something above the common 
level, down came the heart-soothing hopes, with a most dreadful crash, occasioned 
merely by the officious intrusion of the following question, put by my interlectual 
monitor "have you received a letter," my answer was in the negative that I never 
expected to have any. "Then (replies my monitor) it would be the most consum- 
mate folly in you to make such a beginning." Folly thought I, that is a lucky 
hit, I am all folly. However, something must be done soon and at last, I 
thought it best to write a budget. But in writing the budget, the exordium and 
peroration were on the point of making up the whole, for this violation of rule 
your forgiveness. 

I will now inform you that my health has been good, the school is much the 
same, about thirty-five scholars attend, among whom are Cutter, Hunt, Brown, 
Wilder our former schoolmates, the Preceptor is as usual kind and endearing, yet 
he has faults, & who has not? He does not drill us enough; drilling especially to 
such dull minds as mine, is very essential. As to my progress I scarcely wish to 
tell any concerning it. I have read 79 lines in Virgil in three days and a half. 

Please to receive this from your affectionate friend, 

I. BURRAGE. 

Mr. Alvah Crocker 

Leominister P. S. Our school closes on Tuesday the i8th of this 

month in the afternoon please to inform father so that he may send 

after me if he pleases & if you can make it convenient please to come. 

I like with you to have a discourse on the road. Prove that by a 

letter. 



Brown University, May 26, 1824, 
Friend Crocker: 

The old proverb "Out of sight out of mind" is I presume your favorite, & you 
surely deserve no small praise for due observance of it. Two or three months have 



LIFE ^ND TIMES OF ^ALVAH CROCKE%^ 7 

passed tediously away & no epistle from you has yet greeted my eyes. I can brook 
the disappointment no longer. My pen is in hand, & this imperfect communica- 
tion will soon wend its way to your residence to request, that if the address with 
which this section commences, is no longer agreeable it may be lost in the yawn- 
ing gulph of Oblivion. 

Having now given vent to my passion, I dismount from my Bucephalus and 
plod along with you in a friendly manner, & relate everything I can think of, that 
will be interesting. It is vacation with us at present & as there are several students 
like myself who are too poor & too remote from the paternal roof to render it 
convenient to visit their friends the short time which intervenes between the close 
of the last term & the commencement of the next, we have obtained leave to room 
in college. We keep bachelors' hall at present & begin to taste the soldier's life in 
all respects as it regards subsistence, — one sweeps, another cooks and the third 
is market-man, the market is near, & affords all the variety of provision we wish 
at a cheap rate. We make ourselves very comfortable at 75^ per week, in the 
meantime three libraries furnish all the intellectual gratifications that heart can 
ask, or imagination conceive, so that contentment only is wanting to insure us a 
tolerable portion of happiness allotted to mortal man. 

Such is a picture of the present, would that the past and future might present 
as pleasant a prospect. But alas! I shall not attempt to conceal from you that our 
college has been in a very disordered state, the causes of which I will proceed to 
enumerate. On my return to Providence, immediately after I last saw you, I 
learned that Dr. Adams, our Professor of Mathematics & Natural Philosophy 
has resigned. He had been appointed President of a college in Charleston, S. 
Carolina, where his salary would be triple what it was here; he, however, informed 
some persons in town, that he should not have resigned had he received proper 
treatment from the other officers, & signified that he should prefer a written accu- 
sation in a short time. Our fiery spirits took the hint upon this information, 
& having assembled in a considerable body about 12 o'clock p.m. they assaulted 
the houses of the President & Professor Park, broke the windows & shouting "Down 
with old Messer & Park and up with Adams." The authors of this disturbance 
could not be discovered; as is generally the case. Great irregularity succeeded in 
all departments, & to cap the climax, the Junior Class shut the door against their 
professor which amounted to open rebellion, this outrage passed with impunity & 
one recitation was omitted. Certain of the trustees now persuaded the class to 
get up a memorial, & present to the Fellows specifying that our recitations were 
omitted, & that no order was observed, this has been done, & a meeting of the 
Corporation will be held in twenty days, when it is expected the officers will be 
dismissed, or that several students will be rusticated & indeed four are already. 
Those who wish for the dismission of the officers, rely much on the difference of 
the religious tenets prevailing among the corporation, which I am sorry to say 
will have too much influence. 

My health is good, my spirits have recovered in some degree from the shock 



8 LIFE 'lAND times OF <^LVAH CROCKEH^ 

occasioned by my domestic affliction which still an awful calamity seems, 0! 
may I be taught more composure & learn to 

"Redeem mine hours — the space is brief 

While in my glass the sand grains shiver 
And measureless my joy or grief, 

When time & I shall part forever." 
From your friend, I. BURR^^GE, Providence. 
Mr. A. Crocker: 

If we stop to consider that the letter from Groton was written by a 
boy then in his seventeenth or eighteenth year to a contemporary, we 
may fairly conclude that their maturity compares at least favorably with 
boys of today, and while their phraseology is inclined to be stilted, yet 
the display of grammar, vocabulary and the literary allusions reflect credit- 
ably on the teaching of Groton Academy. 

One incident remains to be told of Alvah Crocker's youth which reveals 
his characteristic persistency. When eighteen years of age he went to 
Newburyport to visit some relatives. While there he was told that there 
was a portrait of Captain John Crocker somewhere in town that had been 
left by a cousin who had removed with his family to Vermont. In loading 
up his goods he could find no place for the portrait, the frame being of an 
unusual size. Mr. Crocker was told if he could find it, he could have it 
for his own, as it was many years since the cousin had left and nothing 
had been heard from the family since. The youth with his natural ardor 
and earnestness of purpose began the search and called at every house on 
Main Street asking if the portrait of Captain John Crocker had been left 
there. He finally arrived at the residence of Mrs. Bass, widow of Bishop 
Bass. She looked carefully and critically at the young man and said in 
reply to his inquiry for the portrait, "Yes, and you look enough like the 
portrait to be identified as a descendant of the Captain." Mr. Crocker 
carried it away and left it at the house of his relative where he was visit- 
ing, with the understanding that whenever he had a home of his own it 
should be sent to him. The painting is said to be by Copley or one of his 
pupils. Eventually Mr. Crocker obtained this picture, which later passed 
from his son into the possession of his grandson, the present owner. 

In 1820, the year following the incident of finding the portrait, Alvah 
Crocker, definitely having abandoned all hopes of attending college, left his 
home in Leominster and went to work in a paper mill at Franklin, New 
Hampshire, where he remained about two years. His return to Fitchburg, 
Massachusetts, in 1823 marks the beginning of another chapter in his life. 




A VIEW UK OLD FITCHBURG 
From an early drawinf; of the upper Common. 




/\ VIEW OF OLD FITCHBURG 
A later photograph of tlie centre taken from the same point as above 



Chapter II 

EARLY BUSINESS EXPERIENCE 

1823-1836 

IT was in the employ of General Leonard Burbank, the first paper-maker 
in Fitchburg that Alvah Crocker went to work. Though young in 
years he was now old in experience, and his ambitions soon led him 
to a momentous decision. In 1826 he managed to borrow sufficient capital 
to acquire a mill site in West Fitchburg and start manufacturing paper 
by hand, on his own account. The early years were beset with difficulties. 
Not only was he hampered by the location of his mill, which was inacces- 
sible, since the river road had not yet been built, but the time was at hand 
when machines were beginning to displace the slow hand process of paper- 
making, and in spite of the debt of $12,000 which impended from his 
original purchase he felt forced, in order to meet competition, to raise 
$10,000 additional for new machinery. 

Luck itself seemed to be against him, as a freshet inopportunely caused 
serious and costly damage to his mill at this juncture. Being hampered 
by the lack of sufficient working capital, he procured his raw materials and 
chemicals through a Boston commission house, which accepted his finished 
product in return. Now on top of all his other trouble this bank informed 
him that the balance against him was $4,000, and, although not due, they 
unscrupulously demanded payment. No help could be expected from 
his fellow-townsmen, who in their puritanical exclusiveness regarded 
Crocker's enterprises with misgivings, fearing that the influx of working- 
men might lower the moral standards of the town. There was but one 
way out of the difficulty, which was to open accounts with yearly settle- 
ments only, for what stock he wanted throughout the country, and to sell 
his paper direct. Bravely shouldering these additional burdens he actually 
worked both night and day, for he often drove his own team by night 
loaded with paper to Boston. It is easy to imagine that during these long 
tedious rides his mind began to work over the transportation problems 
that later claimed so much of his attention. 

Thus he struggled on under a heavy load of debt, gradually weathering 
the difficult years of the "thirties." An incident which gives a very 
graphic picture of his condition, mingling the pathetic with the ridiculous, 
was as follows: 



lo LIFE ^ND TIMES OF ^LVAH CROCKET^ 

"There were then no Banks in Fitchburg and commission houses con- 
trolled business at that period in Boston. It being impossible for him to 
continue with his commission house, and without capital, he found him- 
self one morning in Boston with the notes of two well-known firms, for the 
paper he had teamed forty-seven miles from Fitchburg during the night. 
He looked around for some Bank to get the money for his notes. Verdant, 
weary and supposing the business of a Bank was to discount notes, he 
stopped his team before the 'New England.' Marching in, he proceeded 
at once to the cashier's desk, and pulling out his promises to pay from his 
pocket, demanded the money. The cashier informed him with a grace- 
ful bow 'they did not discount.' With a voice that might have been 
heard to the bottom of the street, and looking the cashier in the eye, Mr. 
Crocker exclaimed: 'I have not a cent to go home with, sir! I have work- 
men and debts to pay. Must have it. Shall fail, sir. I must and will 
have it.' His manner, his old 'Tom and Jerry' suit coupled with his 
strange singing voice was too much for the cashier, tellers and clerks, who 
all joined in a loud roar of laughter. While the applicant was trying to 
consider what it might mean, still keeping his eye on the cashier, the 
noise brought the President of the Bank from his room. Illy suppressing 
his own smiles, he asked him his name and where he lived, and finally 
repeated the inquiry if he did not know that banks did not then discount. 
'How should I know that.?' sang a stentorian voice, Mr. Crocker still 
maintaining his attitude and feeling that they were still trying to impose 
on him and that even then he had some inherent, inalienable right there, 
while his highwayman sort of bearing was dilemma of not ordinary kind. 
Literally to get rid of their ignorant and persistent customer, as his paper 
was good, the President told him if he would get on his box and go right 
home, telling no one where he got his money, the Cashier might take his 
paper." 

These difficult experiences never seemed to embitter Alvah Crocker; 
indeed they more likely quickened his sympathies. At a much later date 
it happened that a young manufacturer was seeking to borrow some money, 
and the bank of which Mr. Crocker was a director was loath to make the 
loan. Mr. Crocker, having confidence in the applicant, arose at the meet- 
ing and declared: "This is a worthy man and he needs the money. If 
you refuse to discount his note, I will do so myself and withdraw the 
money from this bank to do it." Needless to add, the note was discounted. 

Being now more firmly established with a business of his own, the time 
had come when it was possible for Mr. Crocker to indulge his natural 
longing for a home life, and on August 14, 1829, he was married to Abigail 



LIFE ^AND TIMES OF ^ALVAH CROCKEIi^ ii 

Fox of Jaffrey, New Hampshire. She died in Fitchburg, August 21, 1848, 
in her thirty-seventh year, leaving five children, — Harriet Newell, born 
December 14, 1830, married June 2, 1858, William B. Lyon of Gardner; 
Charles Thomas, born March 2, 1833; Mary Eloise, born 1837, married 
January 28, 1858, William Roscoe Lyon of Haverstraw, N.Y.; Margaret 
B., born November 15, 1841, died in her tenth year; Louisa T., born Feb- 
ruary 8, 1847, lived but six years. 

In spite of the engrossing demands of his business Mr. Crocker always 
found time to be of some use to his community. Thus we find him in 
183 1 acting as chorister for the Calvinistic Congregational Church "at 
the munificent salary of ^13.00 a year" as well as having become a teacher 
of the "annual singing school." 

His first public office was as "hog reeve" in 1830. In 183 1 he was a 
"tithingman," and one of the last to hold this ancient title. He became 
a "fireward" in 1835 and held the position until the organization of a fire 
department in 1851, continuing his connection for a number of years as 
one of its engineers. He first served the town as moderator in 1838, was 
on the school committee in 1839 and 1840, and was in the militia company 
in 1843. 

In 1834 the town of Fitchburg authorized Mr. Crocker to get a new 
road farther up the Nashua Valley to the Westminster line. The land- 
holders being opposed to sell a right of way, he purchased the entire valley 
himself and gave the land for the road. Subsequently his mills were all 
located in this valley, and his wise generosity was amply justified. 

By this time he had worked out of his trouble into a growing measure 
of prosperity and turned his attention to public affairs, being elected in 
1836 as a Representative to the General Court of Massachusetts. In 
R. C. Torrey's "History of Fitchburg," published at this time, we find 
the following comments of interest: 

"The town has daily communication by means of mail stages with 
Boston, Keene and Lowell. Stages also depart for Springfield and Worces- 
ter, and return alternate days. Accommodation stages also pass daily 
between this place and Boston. 

"A. Crocker & Co.'s paper mill is located on the Nashua at a distance 
one and a half miles west the village. A good head of water is secured 
here. At this establishment paper of various kinds, principally however 
printing and writing paper, is manufactured to a considerable extent. 

"Crocker and Gardner's Paper Mill, generally known as the Burbank 
paper mill, is 80 rods farther down stream (from the Stone mill which was 
situated in that part of the village known as the 'Old City'). A good head 



12 LIFE ^ND TIMES OF ^ylLVAH CROCKET^ 

of water is obtained here. The mill is altogether used for the manufacture 
of wrapping paper. Two engines are kept in almost constant motion night 
and day, to furnish pulp sufficient to supply one machine. Both of the 
paper mills in this town have, in connection with their machines, a late 
improved drying cylinder (generally 4 to 6 feet in diameter) which com- 
pletely dries it. At the same time it is cut into pieces of convenient size, 
ready to be folded into reams. 

"The Burbank paper mill and dam (the third built across the Nashua) 
were built in the year 1804 by Thomas French. The mill went into opera- 
tion the following year. A. Crocker & Co.'s mill was built in 1826 and the 
dam made in the previous autumn. The place was exceedingly rough and 
difficult of access. The dam cost $1,500." 

It is impossible to detach a life from its environment and fully com- 
prehend its accomplishments or significance. Let us swiftly review the 
events that were making their impressions on the growing man and had the 
most bearing upon his career. 

Patriotism was a marked characteristic of Alvah Crocker, and during 
the impressionable years of boyhood his spirit must have been deeply 
stirred by the war of 1812. Such inspiring events as the Battle of Platts- 
burg and the naval duel between the Constitution and the Guerriere were 
firing the minds of America with a new pride of country. Referring to 
the latter, Henry Adams says, "A small affair it might appear among the 
world's battles, it took but half an hour, but in that one half hour the 
United States of America rose to the rank of a first-class power." But 
we need not dwell upon the varying vicissitudes of that two years' war 
which consolidated our country, and made for us a new and secure place 
among the nations. Its most significant outcome was the dawn of our 
national consciousness. In the fifty-seven years of peace preceding the 
Civil War, the country made enormous industrial strides. For the purpose 
of this narrative we may pass over the more familiar facts of national 
history to stress the commercial growth, of which Alvah Crocker's career 
was part and parcel. We may well quote a few passages from Elson's 
"History of the United States": 

"Nothing impressed the student of the history of this period more 
than the progress in the invention of machinery and in the means of 
travel. . . . The first important advance in this line came through the 
general use of the steamboat. By the time of Monroe's second election 
(1823) the Western rivers, as well as those of the East, were covered with 
steam craft. ... So it was also along the seacoast. All the leading ports 
were now connected by lines of steam vessels and a journey from one 




o 



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p.. 
a 












u 



LIFE ^AND TIMES OF ^LVAH CROCKETi^ 13 

coast city to another became a pleasure trip, and consumed far less time 
than in the old days of the stage coach." 

The growth of the inland towns, such as Fitchburg, not situated on 
navigable waters naturally languished, and few were more alive to the 
handicap than Alvah Crocker, who well knew from personal hardship the 
drawbacks of such a condition, as well as the tax that it added to the cost 
of merchandise. 

"The vast network of railroads that now covers the United States had 
its beginning at the time we are treating. John Stevenson, an inventive 
genius of the highest order, who had done almost, if not fully as much as 
Robert Fulton for the steamboat, was now the chief advocate of steam 
railways. A road was soon built from Philadelphia to the Susquehanna 
but the cars first used were drawn by horses. . . . The first steam locomo- 
tive was brought from England in 1829 — but it proved a failure. In 183 1, 
however, a locomotive was successfully used in South Carolina and within 
a few years others were in operation in various parts of the country. But 
for years after this beginning many of the cars, even on the steam roads, 
were still drawn by horses. 

"The roads were owned by the state and the cars and engines by 
individuals or corporations. Any one owning a car or an engine had the 
use of the road. . . . Eventually the railroads passed into the hands of 
private corporations, and horses were everywhere supplemented by the 
steam engine." 

Railroading was scarcely more than an established practical feat at 
the time that Alvah Crocker entered the Massachusetts House of Repre- 
sentatives and began his public advocacy of railroad communication for 
Fitchburg. In this cause he was more than abreast of the times as proved 
by the extraordinary opposition which he encountered in his far-seeing 
projects. Fitchburg, itself, according to R. C. Torrey, had a population 
in 1830 of twenty-six to twenty-seven hundred. This author states: 
"From the School returns furnished to the Legislature in 1835 I gather the 
following statements. The number of children 4 to 16 years of age, is 
males, 271, females, 289. Average attendance 416. Children not attend- 
ing common schools any portion — 15 males, 26 females. Aggregate time 
of keeping school in all the districts in winter 28 months, 21 days. Summer 
28 m. 7 d. Number of male instructors 11, female do. 14. Average wages 
per month exclusive of board, winter $16.67, summer $4.30. Amount 
of money raised by tax for supporting common schools $1,237.50. Esti- 
mated amount paid for tuition at the Academy and private schools 
$705.00." 



14 LIFE ^ND TIMES OF ^LVAH CROCKETi^ 

Crocker's vision was not bounded by the small limits of his native 
environment; his self-educated mind looked far beyond and took in the 
national problems as well. Interesting evidence of this forward-looking 
habit is to be found in a letter of September i6, 1842, signed "C," but 
safely attributable to Mr. Crocker, who was just beginning his activi- 
ties in promoting the Fitchburg railway, concerning which the letter 
mainly was devoted. To say the least, it is so thoroughly characteristic 
of the man as to warrant partial transcription. "Mr. Editor — I am aware 
that I am somewhat lengthy, but our present legislative session reminds 
me of the political bearing of this and enterprises of a similar character, 
a word upon which and I close. New England has heretofore sustained a 
commanding influence in this great republic. Her district schools, her 
colleges of learning, and her exalted moral principles have diffused abroad 
their rich and varied blessings. To promote and increase their influence 
we must secure to ourselves every possible means of sustaining a dense 
population by industry and the arts, and should regard our physical as well 
as intellectual energies. Let these grow tame and dead and the very 
smallness of our territory will sink us into insignificance. Let New England 
influences cease upon this nation, and the abstract vagaries of southern 
nullification, the pestilential miasma of corrupting, licentious slavery will 
ring the death knell of a structure of human government, beautiful for its 
symmetry and hallowed for its sacred regard for the unfettered, untram- 
meled freedom of mankind." 

At the age of forty-one, almost twenty years before our great Civil 
War, Crocker came close in these words to expressing the moral aspects 
of the cause to which he later gave both wealth and unstinted support. 

Of Mr. Crocker's record in the House of Representatives we have no 
extensive information aside from the record of his votes. Thirty-seven 
times he was found in agreement with the action of the House, fourteen 
times in opposition, and on forty-six measures he was not recorded. His 
terms covered the years of 1837, 1838, 1842 and 1843. The striking 
accomplishments of these years centre about his activities in the upbuild- 
ing of the Fitchburg Railroad. 



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in:vp > ._ 

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MASSACHUSETTS *="..-* -.^^-jj,- 



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MAP OF FITCHBURG, 1851 

From original surveys under tlie direction of Henry F. Walling, Civil Engineer, 

and John Hanson, Assistant Engineer. Published by 

A. G. Gillet in 185 1. Original map scale 20 rods to an inch. 



Chapter III 
THE FITCHBURG RAILROAD 

THE first agitation for railroad connections between Fitchburg and 
Boston occurred in 1837 at a meeting held in Fitchburg. The plan 
contemplated a route via Framingham to connect at that point 
with the Boston and Worcester Railway, but interest flagged and the propo- 
sition was for a long time abandoned. In the mean time a group of citizens, 
consisting of Alvah Crocker, Horace Newton, Samuel Willis and Abial J. 
Towne, held a conference which is described as follows by W. S. Wilder, 
who was at that time editor of the Fitchburg Sentinel. 

Referring to a notice which was issued to call a "Railroad Meeting" 
for November 19, i84i,hesays: "This notice, written by William B. Towne, 
originated thus: One evening in our reading room, present Alvah Crocker, 
Horace Newton, Samuel Willis, Abial J. Towne, the conversation was on 
the project of a county road being laid out, passing through the south part 
of this town, from Winchendon to Leominster. It was proposed to push for 
a railroad, directly, to avoid the diversion of travel from Fitchburg centre. 
Newton and Crocker expressed no faith in the project. Crocker referred 
to the failure in attempting to get a road to Framingham, and was dis- 
couraged. I told him if he would write a notice for a meeting, I would 
publish it. He refused, and so did Newton. No one present had con- 
fidence in the success of a railroad being built, or at least none was expressed, 
and the most said in favor of calling the meeting was that it might lead to 
a prevention of laying out the proposed southern road by the commis- 
sioners. It was said if a railroad was ever built from Fitchburg to Boston 
the southern road would be useless, and would cost the town several thou- 
sand dollars. Newton (then one of the Selectmen) was very anxious to 
avoid this." 

The meeting was called to order by Francis Perkins with Jacob Haskell 
as Secretary, and resulted in the selection of a "Committee of Correspond- 
ence and Enquiry" consisting of Alvah Crocker, Samuel Willis, John T. 
Farwell, Alpheus Kimball and Abial J. Towne. The interesting account 
of the meeting, as recorded in the Fitchburg Sentinel, is as follows: 

"From the apparent interest which many of our citizens have taken 
in relation to this subject, and the known feasibility of a route direct to 
the city, we are led to believe that the day is not far distant when this new 



i6 LIFE ^ND TIMES OF ^lALVAH CR0CKE%^ 

and desirable measure shall have been completed. The only obstacles in 
the way, of any importance, calculated to defeat the object, are the strong 
prejudices existing in the minds of many against all railroads, and par- 
ticularly among the agriculturalists, who fear that a reduction of price 
must necessarily take place in the usual products of the farm wherever 
this mode of transportation is introduced; the opposition which will un- 
doubtedly be experienced from the two corporations, one upon each side 
of the contemplated route, now in successful operation; and the amount 
of stock required to be taken up. To these may be added the opinions 
entertained by many who are fully aware of the dangerous tendencies of 
increasing the wealth and power of privileged corporations. So far as the 
farming interests are concerned, any considerable opposition from this 
source must, we think, rise from mistaken views. It cannot be reasonably 
supposed that the various kinds of produce from any farm can long command 
a higher price in Fitchburg or its immediate vicinity than they will in Boston, 
Worcester or Lowell, and it must be obvious to all that the convenience 
of a railroad communication will open a market for many kinds of produce 
which are now unprofitable, only for the want of a cheap, easy and quick 
transportation to the city. Should any opposition arise from the present 
established corporations, we hope that a sense of justice and equal rights 
may so far prevail among them as to neutralize its effects. And in order 
to secure the necessary amount of stock, it only needs to be shown, as 
we believe it can be shown in a demonstration, that investments in this 
undertaking can be made perfectly safe, and highly profitable. As to the 
dangers of privileged corporations, so long as they exist, and must neces- 
sarily continue to exist in this country, the greater danger is to be appre- 
hended from a small number with superior advantage, rather than many, 
equally accessible, and judiciously established throughout the country. 
We shall therefore go for a railroad from Fitchburg to Boston. And we 
venture to predict that if our citizens are not blind to their interests, they 
will unite in the effort now to be made in securing the privileges of a rail- 
road; and if this is not done, if the object is not in some way accomplished, 
ere many years shall roll round the wheel of time, the car wheels of other 
routes will roll away with the interests of our citizens, in despite of the 
present thriving appearance of our village, its excellent water privileges, 
its ample resources of business and its inexhaustible Rollstone." 

The movement was now launched in earnest, and, at an adjourned 
meeting held December 20, reports of those who had visited various 
interested towns were heard, and the committee was instructed to call a con- 
vention of delegates from these towns, which it did in the following words : 



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LIFE ^ANB TIMES OF ^LVAH CROCKET^ 17 

In pursuance of this trust we have appointed Tuesday, the eleventh day of 
January, 1842, at nine o'clock a.m. at the Massasoit House in Waltham, when 
and where you are cordially invited to attend; and also to take such measures as 
shall insure your town full representation at said meeting. Some of the topics for 
discussion will be 

1st. Shall this large and populous section of country now reaping no benefit 
from steam communication, but positive injury, unite to restore our business and 
travel to its accustomed channels.^ 

2d. If the convention shall accept the affirmative of this question, shall such 
measures be taken as will carry the object into speedy effect? 

3d. Shall we unite with the Fresh Pond railroad, so called, now built within 
about four miles of Waltham, and if so, take such action as will secure its immediate 
accomplishment? 

Delegates are earnestly requested to come prepared to state, as near as possible, 
the number of passengers and the amount of tonnage both from and to their 
respective towns, from and to the city of Boston, the probable cost per annum 
for these two items to each town, the natural resources (water power, etc.) for 
increase of business by increased facilities, together with such statistics as will 
not only add a deep and abiding interest to the occasion, but form an invaluable 
material for future use. 

We have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servants, 

A. CROCKER 
A. J. TOWNE 
SAMUEL WILLIS 
A. KIMBALL 
J. T. FARWELL. 

In addition to the signers of this note, the following delegates were 
chosen to represent the town of Fitchburg — Francis Perkins, David Bou- 
telle, Isaiah Putnam, Porter Piper, Nathaniel Wood, C. Marshall and 
Jacob Haskell. 

To a paper entitled "The Early Days of Railroads in Fitchburg," by 
Henry A. Willis, read before the Fitchburg Historical Society in April, 
1892, we are indebted for the following narrative of the Fitchburg Rail- 
road: 

"The convention was held according to the notice, January nth, 1842. 
About one hundred delegates were present from the various towns along 
the proposed route. Mr. John Rogers of Concord presided, with three 
vice-presidents and two secretaries. Mr. Crocker addressed the meeting, 
alluding to the primary measures adopted at Fitchburg resulting in the 
calling of the convention, and calling attention to the feasibility and 



i8 LIFE 'lANB times OF ^LVAH CROCKETi^ 

advantages of an independent route, instead of a route from Fitchburg to 
connect with the Worcester or Lowell road as had been contemplated in the 
project of some four or five years before. Dr. Abraham T. Lowe of Boston, 
at that time a director in the Western railroad, and who has lately died 
at the age of ninety-three, addressed the convention at considerable length, 
giving much encouragement by his remarks. Gen. Dana of Charlestown 
and others addressed the convention with good effect. The practical 
results of the convention were the choosing of committees, as follows: 

"A Committee on Survey, composed of Samuel M. Felton of Charles- 
town, Samuel Willis of Fitchburg, W. E. Faulkner of Acton, Israel Longley 
of Shirley, and thirteen others from the various towns between Fitchburg 
and Boston. 

"A Committee on Statistics, composed of Alvah Crocker of Fitchburg, 
Salma Hale of Keene, Ebenezer Hobbs of Waltham, Davis Loring of Con- 
cord and Joseph Davis of Templeton. 

"Also a committee to confer with the directors of the Charlestown 
branch. Fresh Pond railroad, and to petition the legislature for a charter, 
if they thought best, as follows: Alvah Crocker of Fitchburg, N. F. Cun- 
ningham of Boston, F. R. Gourgas of Concord, Abel Phelps of Boston. 
The last committee was also empowered to propose resolutions and publish 
the proceedings of the convention. 

"This committee subsequently reported the following resolutions, which 
are given in full, as they are rather unique in composition and show great 
earnestness of purpose: 

^''Resolved, That the success which has hitherto crowned railroad enter- 
prise in every section of this Commonwealth now sheds its beacon light 
upon us, and stimulates us to prompt and efficient action to obtain the same 
glorious results for ourselves that others now enjoy. 

"Resolved, That while we regard with the highest satisfaction the 
increasing wealth and prosperity incident upon the establishment of our 
great railroad thoroughfares in New England, both to our own city of 
Boston and those sections of country through which they pass, while our 
lively sympathies and willing aid have been aflForded toward the completion 
of those noble works, common justice would seem to indicate that others, 
who now enjoy such additional facilities, should also accord to us their 
sympathy and aid. 

"Resolved, That while we are determined (should a charter be obtained) 
to build a road inferior to none in durability and care in the construction, 
an imperious sense of duty demands a rigid economy; and in consequence 
of the extreme feasibility of the route, the public have a right to ask and 



LIFE ^ND TIMES OF <^LFJH CROCKER 19 

expect a moderate tariff, not only for passengers and tonnage, but also for 
branch roads which may enter upon our track. 

"Resolved, That while the Western railroad must ever be the great 
outlet to the fertile and almost inexhaustless West; while the Lowell and 
Concord road now commands and must ever command an immense busi- 
ness on the east side of the Monadnock, Kearsarge, and Franconia Ridge, 
the God of Nature has marked and established, by metes and bounds 
not to be misunderstood, a direct river route, not to Keene and Brattle- 
boro, but following the upper Connecticut and other streams to White- 
hall and Montreal. 

"Resolved, That this route, almost precisely intermediate between 
Lowell and Worcester roads, is the consummation of the routes essentially 
necessary for the northern country and Boston — the direct route, when 
finished, for the travel from our Atlantic steamers to Montreal; and that 
this first section to Fitchburg is a germ which will ultimate in such fruition. 

"These committees got immediately to work, and I also find that stock 
subscriptions were made at once, in advance of any charter being author- 
ized. At Concord, a rousing meeting was held February 5, 1842, and a 
committee chosen to procure stock, who reported a few days later a sub- 
scription of $48,000, all from Concord citizens. On the 12th and 14th of 
February meetings were held in Fitchburg and Waltham, and stock sub- 
scription opened. At the latter place liberal subscriptions were made; 
but I conclude from a manuscript letter of February 11, 1842, now in my 
possession, from Samuel Willis to Alvah Crocker, then a member of the 
legislature, that there was much apathy existing here on the subject, owing, 
the letter states, to the fact of the uncertainty as to where the railroad 
was to terminate. The sectional feeling between 'Old City' and 'Up Town' 
was very pronounced in those days, as we shall see further on. The letter 
was an urgent appeal to Mr. Crocker to leave his legislative duties and come 
up and address the people, which he probably did. On the 21st of Feb- 
ruary, 1842, a public meeting was held at Charlestown, at which it was 
resolved that 'We hail with joy the prospect of bringing to this town the 
terminus of the contemplated railroad from Fitchburg,' and a committee 
of nine was chosen to solicit subscriptions to the stock. 

"On the 2d of March, 1842, the bill for the incorporation of the Fitch- 
burg Railroad Company was passed to be engrossed. After this date the 
work of the committees was very vigorously pushed, and reports were 
made at a meeting held at the Fitchburg Hotel, June 27, 1842, at which 
meeting it was voted that the persons named in the act of incorporation 
be requested to call a meeting of the subscribers to the stock, to be held at 



20 LIFE ^AND TIMES OF ^LVAH CROCKET^ 

Concord on July 13, 1842, 'to determine on the acceptance of the act of 
incorporation, to elect directors, adopt by-laws, etc' This meeting was 
accordingly called by A. Crocker and N. F. Cunningham. 

"The meeting at Concord was held pursuant to notice, and was pre- 
sided over by Hon. Samuel Hoar of Concord. The 'Act' was accepted, 
by-laws adopted, and the following were unanimously elected as the first 
Board of Directors: Alvah Crocker of Fitchburg, Samuel Willis of Fitch- 
burg, David Wilder of Leominster, W. E. Faulkner of Acton, Israel 
Longley of Shirley, David Loring of Concord, Horatio Adams of Waltham, 
Nathan Pratt of Charlestown, Benjamin Thompson of Waltham, N. F. 
Cunningham, Luke Carter and E. H. Derby of Boston. It is recorded 
that gentlemen were present from nearly every town along the route, and 
that the utmost harmony and good feeling prevailed. 

"From this time on during the year 1842, I find that interest was not 
allowed to lag. Meetings were held and the subscription list pushed. 
The local papers along the route teemed with editorials in favor of the proj- 
ect. There appeared to be no public opposition. 

"Mr. Crocker was, indeed, indefatigable. We find him addressing 
meetings in Boston, Charlestown, Greenfield, Keene and Brattleboro, 
and he seemed to be the foremost man in the undertaking. He had also a 
good number of coadjutors who were scouring the country for subscrip- 
tions. Among these may be prominently mentioned, Samuel Willis of 
Fitchburg, W. E. Faulkner of Acton, Israel Longley of Shirley, David 
Loring of Concord, and E. H. Derby of Boston. But it was not until the 
spring of 1843 that sufficient stock was secured to warrant the commenc- 
ing of work, at which time twenty-seven miles of the road was put under 
contract, and the work finally began May 15, 1843. The first assessment 
of ten per cent, was made payable May 25, 1843. 

"On the 1st of August Mr. Crocker and E. H. Derby of Boston sailed 
for England to purchase iron rails for the road. They returned about 
October ist, having purchased four thousand tons, in addition to those 
already purchased. It appears that they bought at a favorable time, 
as an advance of six dollars per ton took place thirty days after. On 
December 20th the road was opened to Waltham; fare, twenty cents, or 
twenty-five cents including omnibus transfer to Brattle Street. 

"The capital subscribed thus far was $750,000. The company bought 
about twenty acres of land for terminal facilities, with two thousand feet 
of water front. This seemed to be a large tract at that time, but has since 
proved far too small, and much has been added. 

"During the year great interest in railroads was manifested everywhere. 




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LIFE lAND TIMES OF ^ALVAH CROCKE%^ 21 

We find meetings being held at Brattleboro and Greenfield, to consider 
a line west from Fitchburg; and at Keene, Bellows Falls and Rutland, in 
the interest of a northern route to Burlington. Also, at Nashua in favor 
of a line to South Groton, to connect with the Fitchburg railroad. 

"Early in 1844 the agitation for a depot location in this city commenced. 
A most exciting controversy followed during the next few months, the 
effect of which was felt for years. 

"To fully understand the merits of this controversy, it should be remem- 
bered that what constituted the principal village of Fitchburg, at that time, 
was situated above what is now known as Newton Place. Both the hotels, 
nearly all the stores and other business locations, were above this point. 
From the house of Dr. Boutelle, where is now the office of the Fitchburg 
Gas Company, corner of Main and Grove Streets, to the Fox house, where 
the opera house stands, corner of Main and Prichard Streets, there were 
but one or two buildings on the north side of the street; while on the other 
side, from the point of residence of Mrs. Alvah Crocker, at the corner of 
Main Street and Wood Place, to what is now Putnam Street, there were but 
six houses, five of which are standing to-day. The territory now bounded 
by Grove, Prichard and Main Streets was vacant land; and all the land 
in the rear, to the top of the hill at Mt. Globe and Mt. Vernon Streets, 
was bare of buildings and partly covered with forests. At what was 
known as the 'Old City' was one store, a blacksmith's shop, the stone cotton- 
mill and the boarding-houses attached thereto, also a sash and blind shop, 
on the site of the present Canal block. Below the David Boutelle house, 
opposite the depot, and in the territory now bounded by Blossom, Pearl, 
Pacific, Lunenburg and Main Streets, there were no buildings. There was 
a schoolhouse, and perhaps six or eight dwellings on the west side of Blos- 
som Street; no hotel or church. The land, from what is now Railroad 
Park to the river, was practically bare. 

"The charter read (in relation to location) 'to a certain point of land 
owned by Samuel Hale, thence to some point in the village of Fitchburg 
which shall best accommodate the people.' The land of Samuel Hale, 
referred to, was beyond the river, and where the gas works are now 
located. Mr. Crocker, the president of the road, unfortunately, perhaps, 
owned the most of the land now bounded by Water, Main and Summer 
Streets and the river, and known as 'Burbank flat.' 

"A committee of directors (of which Mr. Crocker was not one) was 
chosen to locate the depot, and, after several weeks' consideration, located 
it on this tract. I find, about this date, most bitter and sarcastic edi- 
torials and letters of great length in the weekly Sentinel. A very lengthy 



22 LIFE ^ANB TIMES OF ^LVAH CROCKE%_ 

report was made by the committee, E. H. Derby and H. Adams, justify- 
ing their action, and accompanied by a report of the engineer, in which 
he gives comparative estimates of the expense of reaching different loca- 
tions suggested. This latter closes as follows: 

" 'The Fox lot is insufficient for the accommodation of both roads (mean- 
ing the proposed road west) and too far above their probable juncture. 
The lot at the "Old City" is very accessible and as we think sufficiently 
central for the accommodation of business; of ample area to allow of any 
enlargement with the probable increase of business; and by its adoption 
a probable saving of twenty-five thousand dollars may be secured to this 
corporation. With these views, I cannot hesitate to give my opinion in 
favor of its selection, as containing more advantages for a common ter- 
minus than any other of the proposed sites.' 

"The 'Fox lot' referred to was the land now bounded by Grove, Prichard, 
Oliver and Main Streets. I think another lot proposed was the land now 
occupied for the west railroad yard, beyond the Priest Lumber Company 
location. The committee received a long and somewhat spicy remon- 
strance from the citizens, and gave them a patient hearing before making 
their final decision. Their indignation knew no bounds. They charged 
that 'Mr. Crocker has unduly influenced the board of directors to buy his 
twenty acres of land for six thousand dollars; that forty feet had been 
lost in the grade from Leominster, to get down to his land.' A petition, 
signed by three hundred and ten legal voters, was actually presented to the 
legislature, 'to be incorporated for the purpose of constructing a railroad 
to connect the village of Fitchburg with the Fitchburg railroad.' The 
newspaper discussion went on for many weeks, and is very spicy reading 
at the present day. I have been told that most of the principal stock- 
holders here threw their stock upon the market and sold out, depreciating 
the same considerably below par, and that at the completion of the road 
scarcely any of the stock was held in Fitchburg. Mr. Crocker suffered 
severely from the episode, and the feeling engendered lasted for years. 
But who can say, at the present day, that the directors made any mistake 
in their location ? Where could twenty acres have been bought that would 
so completely have served the purpose, as that which was secured.'' We 
certainly have to be thankful that the Fox flat, now occupied by the court 
house, armory, monument and churches, was not destined to become the 
terminus of a railroad, with all which it implies. 

"From this time forward there was very little excitement here concern- 
ing the railroad. The work silently progressed. The road was opened to 
Waltham, December 20, 1843 ; to Concord, June 17, 1844; to Acton, October 



LIFE ^ND TIMES OF ^LVAH CROCKEI^ 23 

I, 1844; to Shirley, December 30, 1844; and to Fitchburg, March 5, 1845. 
The opening of the road was not the occasion of any great demonstration. 
The following from the Sentinel of March 7, 1845, is its only account of the 
opening: 

"FITCHBURG RAILROAD 

"The passenger cars arrived at the depot in this town on Wednesday morning 
for the first time, bringing the officers of the corporation. The officers were greeted 
on their arrival by a committee of reception and by citizens, and were addressed 
by Col. I. Phillips, and in reply in their behalf by A. Crocker, Esq., president of 
the board. The passenger trains now run regular, leaving at 6>^ and 10 o'clock 
A.M. and 4^ P.M. Freight trains run daily. 

"The 'depot fight' had taken all the enthusiasm out of the people. 
The Sentinel appears to have turned the cold shoulder, for in the next 
succeeding weeks I find not the slightest allusion to the railroad, except 
the following in its advertising columns: 

"FITCHBURG RAILROAD OPENED THROUGH TO FITCHBURG 

"On and after Wednesday, March 5th, and until further notice, passenger 
trains will run over the Fitchburg railroad as follows: 

"Up trains, leave Charlestown at 7 a.m., i^ and 5 p.m. 
"Down trains, leave Fitchburg at 6}4 and 10 a.m. and 4^^ p.m. 
"A freight train will run both ways over the road daily. 

"S. M. FELTON, Engineer. 
"March 3, 1845. 

"But I find in the Bunker Hill Aurora, of March 8, 1845, an extensive 
two-column account of the 'opening,' from which some extracts are here 
given: 

" 'The train bearing the directors and some of the stockholders left 
Charlestown at 7 a.m., and received demonstrations of welcome at various 
points along the route, especially at Leominster, where there was a general 
turnout of the people, with flags and banners waving, and a welcoming 
salute of artillery. At Fitchburg several hundred people were found, 
and cheers on cheers welcomed the new visitors. The Fitchburg band 
had been engaged for the occasion, and they added their fine music to 
the general joy which the event Inspired. 

" 'Col. Phillips of Fitchburg, in behalf of the citizens, addressed the 
president and board of directors of the road, and gave them a welcome 
to the town. He spoke particularly of the enterprise and the discourag- 
ing circumstances under which it had been commenced; the obstacles and 



24 LIFE zAND TIMES OF ^ALVAH CROCKET^^ 

difficulties it had to encounter, and its completion and final triumphant 
success against all opposition. He complimented Mr. Crocker for his 
unwearied exertions and his indefatigable zeal in the work, from its first 
commencement to its completion, and thought that the success which 
had crowned the labor would compensate for the obstacles overcome. 
His remarks were received with applause and approbation, and the people 
assembled seem to feel and appreciate the truth of them. 

" 'Mr. Crocker, president of the road, made a brief reply, in which 
he expressed the unexpected pleasure this spontaneous reception of the 
first passenger train into Fitchburg had afforded him. He spoke of some 
of the difficulties which the company had to encounter, and of the grati- 
fication which so large a degree of success as the company had met was 
calculated to inspire. His allusions to more local questions were delicate 
and proper; and in respect to the location of the depot at Fitchburg, being 
himself a resident of the town, and not wishing to exert any influence over 
that matter, he had left the determination of it entirely to the directors, 
not one of them knowing his views until after the question was decided. 
He said he hoped to have an opportunity before long of affording to the 
citizens of Fitchburg an opportunity to test the facilities of the road, 
and also of expressing himself more at length, than he could do on this 
occasion, on the subject of its construction and completion. 

" 'Mr. N. F. Cunningham, one of the directors, having invited his 
associates and a few friends to his residence in Lunenburg, carriages were 
provided and they repaired thither (about five miles from the Fitchburg 
depot). Mr. Cunningham entertained his guests in a most sumptuous 
and elegant manner; and enough was seen of Lunenburg to enable us to 
say that under more auspicious circumstances this pleasant and delight- 
ful town would afford as many attractions of fine scenery and beautiful 
location as any other town in the state. 

" 'Returning to the depot, the train left at 4.30, and arrived at Charles- 
town at 7 o'clock; and although the weather was exceedingly unfavorable, 
we believe we may say that the gentlemen were highly pleased and grati- 
fied with their excursion, more especially with the trip to Lunenburg. 
The moist atmosphere of the day seemed not to dampen the spirits or 
check the flow of wit and cheerful good humor which commenced with 
starting and continued to the return.' 

"The article continues: 'We have so far refrained from mentioning the 
efforts and labor of Alvah Crocker, Esquire, of Fitchburg, the well-known 
and indefatigable president of the company,— the sole projector and father 
of the Fitchburg railroad. In the commencement of this great enter- 




« 



FIRST PASSENGER RAILROAD DEPOT IN FITCIIBURG 



LIFE ^ND TIMES OF ^LVAH CROCKETi^ 25 

prise Mr. Crocker stood alone; and amid every vicissitude and every 
species of discouragement he pressed forward with indomitable zeal in 
his favorite project. Nothing could check his enterprise and no com- 
bination of circumstances cool his zeal. The opposition of interested 
parties, the lukewarmness of friends and the chilling taunts of some, only 
had the effect to draw out his energies in the labor of his heart; and the 
time has now come when he may look with delight and high satisfaction 
upon the completion, so far, of his great enterprise. The most triumphant 
success in the undertaking is now apparent; and the necessity for the road, 
and the business and travel which he foresaw justified and demanded it, are 
now made manifest and are now securing to the stockholders the result 
of a wise and judicious investment of their money. 

" 'The efforts of Mr. Crocker over the entire line of the road (in which 
we believe he addressed more than one hundred meetings of the people), 
as well as his other services out of and in the board of directors, have been 
such as few other men could have performed; and the purity of motive 
and the singleness of heart in which Mr. Crocker went into this work and 
pressed it to such eminent success, are equally creditable to his public 
spirit and to his patriotism. 

" 'It is undoubtedly due to the board of directors to say, that from the 
first, Mr. Crocker has possessed their entire confidence, and they have never 
failed to give him, in every emergency, their prompt and cordial support; 
and it is but justice to him to add that they have found no occasion to 
regret this course, nor any cause to doubt his sagacity and the correct- 
ness of his proceedings. 

" 'We have occupied more space in these remarks than we intended, 
and we may add that they rest altogether upon our own responsibility. 
We have not made them to minister to any morbid sensibility on the part 
of the gentleman named, nor for any other reason whatever than the 
simple one that we know them to be true and deserved.' 

"This tribute to Mr. Crocker was undoubtedly well merited, and I 
doubt not would have found public expression in Fitchburg at the time 
but for the unfortunate depot episode heretofore alluded to. 

"The capital of the company, at the completion of the road in the spring 
of 1845, was ^1,322,500. The length of the road was forty-nine and one- 
fourth miles, which was built at a cost of about $23,000 per mile; the whole 
work being done by S. F. Belknap, under contract, he supplying all material 
except the rails. S. M. Felton was the chief engineer, and afterwards the 
first superintendent of the road. It was built during a period of financial 
depression, when money was, for a portion of the time, worth one to two 



26 LIFE ^ND TIMES OF ^LVAH CROCKE%^ 

per cent, a month; but it was built entirely from subscriptions, and with 
no state aid, as the Western railroad had received. 

"It is recorded that during its construction 'the company never bor- 
rowed a dollar, never gave a note, nor had a lawsuit, and met with no 
accident of any account.' It was essentially a Fitchburg enterprise, having 
its inception here, and carried on to completion largely through the efforts 
of Fitchburg men, while its capital was largely furnished by the people 
of the towns along the line and not by the capitalists of Boston. 

"Upon its completion, it immediately entered upon a most prosperous 
career. Its first dividend was paid in August, 1845, at the rate of eight 
per cent, per annum. In 1846 it paid ten per cent.; 1847, ten per cent.; 
1848, nine and one-half per cent.; 1849, eight per cent.; 1850, eight per 
cent.; January i, 1850, its capital stood at $2,650,000. Its history from 
that time to the present it is not my purpose to give in this paper. Suffice 
it to say, that it has progressed and developed with the ever-increasing 
demands of a growing country, and has always had an honest management. 
It has absorbed other lines and become one of the great arteries along 
which courses the tide of business from the seaboard to the country's 
utmost limit. From a million and a quarter capital, no debt, and fifty 
miles of track at the beginning, it has increased to the present capital of 
$22,164,300 — and a bonded debt and guaranteed stock of lines it has 
absorbed, of $25,042,600 — and 436 miles of track. 

"Commencing with three passenger trains and one freight train each 
way, daily, it has increased to thirteen passenger and over twenty freight 
trains, daily, in each direction. The Vermont and Massachusetts rail- 
road was the next road, having a terminus in Fitchburg, to be built. 

"In November, 1843, a circular signed by prominent citizens of Athol, 
Greenfield, Northfield, Vernon, Brattleboro, Putney, Newfane and Roy- 
alston, was issued, calling a convention of all interested in the 'extension 
of the Boston and Fitchburg railroad to Brattleboro, Lake Champlain 
and Canada, to meet in Brattleboro on Tuesday, December 5, 1843, to 
devise and execute measures to effect the same.' 

"Singularly enough, no one from Fitchburg appears to have signed the 
call. The meeting was held as called, and about one thousand delegates 
were present. Committees were chosen, resolutions adopted, and an 
adjournment made to Athol for December 21, 1843, where the work was 
thoroughly organized. The means taken to arouse public interest along 
the route, and to secure subscriptions, were much the same as in the case 
of the Fitchburg railroad; and Alvah Crocker again seemed to be the mov- 
ing spirit of the enterprise. 



LIFE ^AND TIMES OF ^LVAH CROCKETR^ 27 

"An act of the legislature of Vermont to incorporate the Brattleboro and 
Fitchburg Railroad Company was passed in October, 1843, and an act of 
the legislature of Massachusetts to incorporate the Vermont and Massa- 
chusetts Railroad Company was passed March 15, 1844. Both of these had 
provisions for the union of the two companies, which was afterward effected, 
and the company organized as the Vermont and Massachusetts railroad 
company in November, 1844, and the following directors chosen: Nathan 
Rice, Thomas Lamb, Isaac Livermore, John J. Low, Jacob Foster, 
Joseph Goodhue, Henry Timmins, Joseph Davis, H. W. Fuller, Calvin 
Townsley, Alvah Crocker, Gardner C. Hall, John R. Blake. Nathan 
Rice was the first president, F. W. Buckingham, clerk, and John Rogers, 
treasurer. Alvah Crocker became its president in 1845, and continued 
to serve until the road was completed. 

"Work was commenced in September, 1845. The road was opened 
to Baldwinsville, September, 1847; to Athol, January, 1848; to Montague, 
December, 1848; and to Brattleboro, February 12, 1849. This company 
was not a financial success for many years, but was destined, ultimately, 
to become an important factor in the great line of which the Hoosac Tunnel 
was the greatest feature. It continued to operate its line until 1874, when 
it was consolidated with the Fitchburg railroad by a lease for nine hundred 
and ninety-nine years, executed on the seventh of January, 1874." 

An appreciation of the significance of this enterprise is to be found 
in the speech following, delivered by Charles H. B. Snow at the Centen- 
nial Celebration of Fitchburg on June 30, 1864: 

"The Fitchburg R.R. was then completed, the natural resources of 
the town for the first time made fully available, and new businesses 
inaugurated. This great work, for great it was in view of the difficulties 
and embarrassments that had to be overcome before sufficient support 
could be secured to warrant even its commencement, was the fruit of the 
energy, foresight and perseverance of various citizens — chief among whom 
I may be permitted to mention Samuel Willis, whose name is held in 
affectionate regard for his many public and private virtues that illustrated 
his unobtrusive but useful career, and Alvah Crocker, whose comprehen- 
sive policy even at that early day conceived and fully grasped that system 
of railway intercommunication that was to unite New England with the 
West, and make our northern valleys the channels through which the 
boundless agricultural wealth of the prairie should flow to the ocean. 

"The difficulties they had to overcome were many of them such as 
would be unknown in a similar enterprise at the present day. Our rail- 
way system was comparatively in its infancy. Fitchburg, nestled among 



28 LIFE ^^LND TIMES OF ^ALVAH CROCKEB^ 

the hills in bleak and barren northern Worcester, was but little known. 
Many who were solicited for aid, professed to have never heard of it; the 
country" through which the road was to pass was neither densely populated 
nor rich, and the construction of a continuation which should make it a great 
northern and western line of communication was considered a wild specu- 
lation. Bold enterprise was not so much the fashion of that day as of the 
present, and it was under all these difficulties that by exercise of that faith 
that is said to work miracles, and by that perseverance that feeds upon 
rebuffs, the work was commenced and carried to its triumphant completion. 
From that day Fitchburg may date the period of her real growth and the 
commencement of a business career of great prosperity. Another result of 
general interest and great importance followed the successful construction 
of the Fitchburg railway. It had previously been supposed that all under- 
takings of such vast magnitude could only be carried on by the great 
capitalists as they are called, but it was then for the first time discovered 
that they could possibly be dispensed with and that the united contribu- 
tions of those who lived upon the line of the proposed route swelled into 
an aggregate amply sufficient for all purposes. The larger proportion of the 
stock of the Fitchburg railway was accordingly taken by persons of moder- 
ate means, as a secure and permanent investment and it is so held today. 
The discovery thus made was generally availed of, and an entire revolution 
in these great social enterprises followed. — But few towns have felt the 
life-giving influence of that policy more than Fitchburg." 







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Chapter IV 
ALVAH CROCKER'S PERSONALITY 

IT is easy to infer a great deal about a man from such a record as we 
have so far followed, and yet if we should stop and ask ourselves, 
"What sort of man was Alvah Crocker?" we should feel as though our 
view had been a distant one. 

Singularly enough, very few of his personal papers and letters have 
been preserved, but fortunately his diaries from October, 1843, to December 
12, 1845, remain. Most of the pages contain brief reports of his unceasing 
activities in connection with the Fitchburg and the Vermont and Massa- 
chusetts railroads, interspersed with cash accounts. Here we find him 
securing a deed for some parcel of land needed by the road, there we find 
him arising at half-past four of a dark autumn morning to take the stage 
from Lebanon to Concord, New Hampshire, or journeying at other times 
to Washington in the interests of the railroad. Almost the only reference 
to his paper business concerns the Crockerville mill, which he sold with 
deep regret. We may wonder that without his close supervision his business 
managed to survive those intensive years of railroad promotion. 

In the midst of important transactions and frequently of petty details 
we stumble at times upon the answer to our question, "What sort of man 
was Alvah Crocker?" We discover that deep in the soul of this dynamic, 
ceaseless worker was imbedded the tenderest of human affection, a wealth 
of sentiment and a deeply religious nature. 

We observe as well an appealing liberality in his ways, for in spite of 
the fact that he was a devout church-goer, it is evident that he held to the 
view that the "Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath," 
and at a period when others either considered it wrong to work on Sunday 
or lacked the courage to encounter public opinion in the matter, Alvah 
Crocker frequently found time both for worship and work on the Lord's 
Day. The only thing for which he seems to have had no time was a vaca- 
tion. But let the following excerpts from his diary bear their own testi- 
mony. 

October 14, 1843: Commencing as I do this journal upon the Sabbath as well 
as the anniversary day of my birth I cannot but acknowledge my devout gratitude 
to that Being who has sustained me through all the trying scenes of Life's 
Pilgrimage and by whose mercy I hope when a few more short days are spent to 
meet those dear friends who have gone before me in the Elysium of the Blessed. 



30 LIFE ^ND TIMES OF ^ALVAH CROCKET^ 

I attended church at a schoolhouse, the preacher I did not know, his theme was 
the death of Channing of Ware and well did my soul respond to many of the 
sentiments which he uttered, the friends whom I had just lost, Willis and Burrage, 
were constantly in my mind. In the evening I took leave of many who seemed 
to take some interest in me and arrived at Woodstock eighteen miles at eleven 
o'clock. 

Tuesday October 77, 184J. I find myself feeble. I have rec'd such a shock 
from the death of dear friends that I know not when I shall regain my wonted 
spirits. I am treated here with great kindness and receive introductions to Mat- 
tock Esq. and all the leading men of Vermont. Hyde, Follett of Burlington, &c 
in the afternoon I attend the sitting of the Legislature or assembly, the debaters 
are men strongly marked for talent and great dignity and decorum is preserved. 
On my return I meet Gov. Paine who treats me very cordially and with whom I 
retire to his private room for a few moments before tea. We commence an argu- 
ment during which time my wallet is stolen by one of two men who came in and 
had business with Gov. Paine. In the ev'g I went before the committee of roads 
and explained to them as near as possible the state of the matter and the claims 
which Southern Vermont had for the facility of steam power. 

Wednesday Oct. 18, 184J. . . . Saw for the first time my old Correspondent 
Stevens of Barnet, the Antiquarian, spent the evening with him borrowed 
Burgoyne's Courtmartial of him and read it that night, he calls Gates Mr. & 
Arnold also. 

October ig, 184J Thursday. I made up my mind to leave Montpelier this 
morning and took leave of my many new friends. Cottrel refused pay for my fare 
on acct. of my being robbed. Paine and others offered me money to come home 
with, but I finally accepted of some from Smith $1500. Cottrel introduced me to 
Gen'l. Warren of Middlebury a most excellent man for a stage companion he raised 
a battallion of Green Mountain Boys in the last war and amid the sneers of the Reds 
marched to Plattsburg where he arrived in time to drive off Sir George Provost 
and to witness the victory of McDonough on Sunday morning; he gave me a thrill- 
ing account of the sufferings of the wounded after the action. He lost only two 
men wounded. For his services Congress has not yet voted him one cent, such 
is the dilatory character of Govt. After spending a pleasant ride with him we 
arrived at Lebanon nine p.m. sixty miles from Montpelier where I held a debate 
upon the extension of Concord R.R. 

Sunday October 22. Attended meeting both services Harris an old prosing 
preacher in the forenoon and Beckwith the peace man in the afternoon. I had 
heard the elements of this discourse from his lips five times before. 

Sunday October 2Q, 184.J. When I come home and sit down in the retirement 
my thoughts immediately recur to my friends who are now cold in their graves 
Burrage and Willis. What a sad day I have passed. I was glad at night's return 
to my pillow to shut up by sleep the memory of the past. I heard Mr. Bullard 
however half a day. 



LIFE ^ND TIMES OF ^LVAH CROCKEB^ 31 

Tuesday Oct. ji, 1843. Spent the forenoon in Athol with Estabrook, Kendall 
& Jones. After dinner rode with Harris, a Millerite, who says the world must be 
burned up before 1844 and the saints rest upon a sea of glass; in vain did I attempt 
to reason with him that the seventy weeks might not be seventy weeks of years 
&c &c. Came to South Orange and lectured to a full house in the evening. The 
good people here have hardly yet thought upon the subject. . . . 

Thursday Nov. 2, 1843. Find myself better and as soon as the weather will 
permit shall leave for Northfield. Still I feel that "the worm the canker and the 
grief are mine alone." When shall I recover my wonted spirits? 

Saturday November 4, 1843. After taking breakfast with Mr. W. he kindly 
took me to Doct. Washburn's in Vernon, we come to the Ferry upon the Connecti- 
cut in time to save a miserable drunkard from falling from a boat into the water. 
I find that the Railroad may be carried over to the Vermont side and the bridge 
widen'd for toll which will defray much of the expense. I dined with Doct. Wash- 
burn and after conversing with E. T. Davis of Greenfield came with Doct. Wash- 
burn to Brattleboro where I took tea with Esq. Bradley and his interesting wife. 
At seven I again met the inhabitants of Brattleboro who decided for an immediate 
convention. I then return with my friend Hall to his hospitable mansion to spend 
the night. I have this week met four audiences and travelled more than 100 miles. 

Sunday Nov. 5, 1S43. How beautifully the sun is pouring its light upon me 
as I am seated in the dining room of my warm and cordial friends Mr. & Mrs. 
H. — may the Sun of Righteousness beam upon me onward in my weary pilgrimage, 
and when it is finished O may I fly away and be at rest. 

"Where rivers of pleasure unceasingly roll 
And the smile of the Lord is the feast of my soul 
Hide me O my Saviour hide me 
And receive this weary Soul at last." 



Weary indeed, but if my friends all die may I not lean upon that Rock of Ages 
which is higher than I. . . . 

Friday Nov. 24th 1843. Stormy in forenoon in the afternoon went down and 
took leave of one of my most intimate friends who is just leaving the world for 
Heaven. Mrs. H. — Never shall I forget the interest this lovely being has ever 
manifested in my welfare. 

Monday January /, 1844. By the kindness of Him who never slumbers or 
sleeps I am permitted to enter upon another year. May it be devoted to use- 
fulness to the promotion of good to others and if I do not live to its close may I 
live with reference to sleeping in the bosom of that Saviour which is the Rock of 
my Salvation. 

Monday January 22, 1844. The locating Depot Committee arrived at Fitch- 
burg and prepared to examine the several spots designated for the purpose. 

Tuesday January 23, 1844. Hearing upon the subject of Depot location at 



32 LIFE ^AND TIMES OF ^LVAH CROCKEK^ 

Putnam's where I disclaimed any interference with this question and was sus- 
tained by the Committee and Engineers. 

Wednesday January 24, 1844. Meeting of the Board decided upon the Bur- 
bank Flat for a Depot subject to the decision of the engineers. 

Friday January 26, 1844. Made contracts with Davenport & Bridges for six 
passenger cars each to have a saloon, water closet etc. sixty-four seat for $5200 
with another hundred dollars discretionary with the Committee should the cars 
be such as will warrant it. On settling this contract started with Loring for Con- 
cord where I stopped during the night. 

Saturday January 27, 1844. On returning from Gardner Mass. near Ray- 
ments Mill I noticed a two-horse team coming up. Finding the driver persist 
in keeping the road I threw my horses into the snow entirely out of the road, 
but the whiffle tree of his nigh horse raking the legs of mine and a board striking 
the top of mine which took it off, my horses jumped and finally spilt us out and 
run. We picked up and walked almost to Fitchburg. 

On February 12, 1844, Mr. Crocker started for Washington, arriving 
on the 15th, his purpose being to get a remission of duty on railway iron. 
His letter on this subject to the Hon. George Evans, Chairman of the Com- 
mittee on Finance in the Senate, is reprinted in the appendix. He also 
was interested in securing a contract for the Fitchburg Railroad to carry 
the mail. Some of his experiences during the visit are recorded as follows 
in the diary: 

Sunday Feb. iS, 1844. Awoke in the morning with ill health but find myself 
better at 11 a.m. My night's rest disturbed by dreams which is very uncommon 
for me. Home the welcome of those who are dear to me there was the illusion 
which I awoke to find was not a reality. . . . 

Friday Feb. 2j. In the morning saw Evans who says Buchanan is violently 
opposed to remission of this duty. In the eve. saw Choate of Boston & Webster 
who are in favor of remission. I then visited Parmenter and got a letter to Mr. 
Buchanan who I shall visit tomorrow. 

The effort to see the President was not successful. In the following 
days he was occupied with calls, correspondence and the preparation of 
his letter to Mr. Evans which he had printed and widely distributed. He 
finally succeeded on March 4th in seeing the President who said he should 
"persist in opposing the remission of duty." Nevertheless each day found 
him pressing his arguments with one or another of the Senators and Con- 
gressmen until having done all that seemed possible he departed on March 
23, stopping on his way home at New York, and arriving March 26 only 
to plunge into the usual round of activities, contracting for material, settling 




■^.. 



l!j^!i!l'l!^"' 






0>^^. ^ 





MAIN STREET, FITCHBURG, IN 1867 
View west of Prichard Street. 



LIFE ^ND TIMES OF ^ylLVAH CROCKEfH^ 33 

deals on real estate, etc. On April 24 we find him in Philadelphia negotiat- 
ing for locomotives. On April 25 his diary continues: 

In the afternoon visited Messrs. Baldwins and Norris Locomotive Works, 
promised to write Derby upon the proposition of Norris to put an engine upon 
our R.R. at his own expense and if it worked well to our entire satisfaction we 
were only to keep it. 

From Philadelphia he went again to Baltimore and Washington, bound 
to obtain the remission of duty on railroad iron. He took advantage of 
his presence at the Capital to visit Mount Vernon, which he describes as 
follows : 

Monday Ap 29, 1844. Arose early and in company with Mr. Dillingham 
Doct. Dewey and Mr. Smith visited Mount Vernon. Started by steamboat at 
8 A.M. and arrived at said dilapidated seat at n a.m. road intolerable. The man- 
sion fronts upon the beautiful Potomac but is fast going to decay. I should think 
it about 100 by 40 with wings semicircular which adjoin small huts or buildings 
appropriated for the slaves. I visited Washington's library room here was a bust 
of Lafayette of Washington himself, & I suppose a couple of paintings were those 
of his ancestry. I visited the old tomb where Washington slept until recently 
when his dust was removed to a spot looking down upon the numerous tumuli of 
his slaves where it is said he wished to sleep. The walls are brick with an iron door 
through which are seen the marble coffins enclosing lead ones containing the re- 
mains of George and Martha Washington over the gate also reads "Within this 
enclosure rest the remains of Genl. G. Washington." I went into his fruit garden. 
I snatched a lemon leaf from a tree planted by Washington's own hand, but even 
this like the negro who attended upon it and who was slave to the Genl. during his 
life was going to decay. Fire had swept off a part of the roof. All was decay. 
Could not a nation thought I owing its birth to this great man now rich in wealth 
and resources purchase and restore the hallowed spot. Are we to look coldly on 
till the last sacred vestige save his own noble character is lost. God forbid. Such 
sentiments seemed to pervade the breasts of all present and a vote was passed 
instructing me to draw up a memorial to circulate at Baltimore to have the country 
purchase and restore said consecrated spot. . . . 

After nearly a month of ceaseless work on the remission of the tariff 
on iron, we find this brief record for Thursday, May 23: "I am heartily 
tired of the delay in the Senate upon my bill Evans behaves shabbily." 

June still finds Mr. Crocker in Washington, and on Sunday, June 2, 
he writes in his diary: "Went and heard the Society of Friends. Gave 
great evidence of Piety but not of talent. Wrote G. K. Miles & Co., 
Wife, B. Snow and G. Ralston." 

During the following week he made a trip to Cumberland, and with 
characteristic thoroughness made the following observations in his diary: 



34 LIFE ^ND TIMES OF ^ALVAH CROCKEH^ 

"The first lOO miles of the Baltimore and Ohio R.R. is the Snakehead rail 
but kept in good order as it is examined twice each day by men appointed 
for the purpose. I found the other 97 miles the best road I ever was on. 
The superstructure is just a subsill 3 by 8. Then a cross tie about 6 inches 
square. Then a horizontal sleeper 5x7 inches let into the subsill or cross 
tie 2 inches (of pine) upon this sleeper is laid a heavy rail weighing 58 lbs 
to the yard bolted to the sill. Broken stone is filled up between the cross 
ties to the depth of a foot at a cost of $1300 per mile. Speed 20 M per 
hour. No accident upon the road from its commencement to a passenger. 
Some one broke an arm. Fuel upon this railroad 1.50 per cord. Coal 
bituminous 6c per bushel." 

On June 11, Mr. Crocker returned to Washington at 7 p.m. "Found 
my R.R. bill had gone by the board. Almost all who had promised to go 
for the bill voting against it." Two days later his disgust is evidenced as 
follows in the diary: 

Friday June 14/44. Took leave of this degraded hollow-hearted place Wash- 
ington. A place which of all other places I loathe and abhor. I shall remember 
with pleasure Messrs. Rust, Haines and others and though unsuccessful shall sure 
feel that I have done all in my power to accomplish the object for which I was sent. 

Saturday y Sunday 15 y j6th. Came to New York where I found Mr. Hoyt 
& Mr. Chas. Davis who seemed right glad to see me. Came on board the Norwich 
in company with Mr. Carter. Mr. Harris and others. Left my umbrella. Slept 
at Worcester and hired a private conveyance for $1. and came to Lancaster. Stopt 

and heard Mr. in the evening. Came with stage horse to Fitchburg. Once 

more to enjoy my family. 

Monday July 8, 1844. Spent the forenoon with Mr. Lyon upon the sale of my 
Crockerville mill. 

Sunday July 28, 1844. Attended meeting at Dorchester in the forenoon. In 
the afternoon went to hear my friend Neal in the city. Never did life seem so much 
of a burden to me as now. I have parted with the property once so dear to me 
because I cannot keep it with my present duties standing as it does entirely 
unproductive. It is where all my strongest efforts were made and in a village 
called by my name. How sweet sometimes is the thought there is a grave. 

Tuesday July 30. . . . Met Mr. Lyon at Grants he wished to have the height 
of the dam specified. Gave him a writing to that effect upon which he paid me 
$3000 in cash. He then gave me a note for 200 towards the machine and Vinton 
100 because of Dryer at L Mill. Gave me $3500 in notes and Vinton same. Sub- 
sequently he furnished me 

Bk stock $500 

With the Gill note mortgage 979-17 

Cash to square and took up 3 notes. 



LIFE ^ND TIMES OF ^LVAH CROCKETi^ 35 

Monday Oct. 14, 1844. Forty-three years old and what have I done and how 
far have I fell short of the mark by which through the power of Him who never 
slumbers or sleeps I had set for to reach. But the Lord is my Shepherd and if He 
does not make me to lie down in the green pastures He will soon have done with 
me on earth when I hope to meet with Him in His mercy above. What a bubble 
is life. . . . Bought slabs of Woodward 1.75 per cord. Saw Putnam told him 
that if I did not tell him tomorrow I would take his boards ^9.50 per M. 

The diary record of the next four months contains a variety of memo- 
randa on business deals, meetings of directors and accounts. Then we sud- 
denly come upon Mr. Crocker's brief and laconic account of the opening 
of the Fitchburg Railroad: 

Wednesday March 5, 1845. Opening of the Fitchburg Railroad. At 7 a.m. we 
started from Charlestown. When we arrived at Leominster we were cheered and 
announced by the roar of cannon. At Fitchburg we were met by citizens of the 
Town and addressed by Col. Phillips very appropriately. He attended to the 
mass of enemies, efforts of sectional men and complimented me. I replied by thank- 
ing them for this token of respect and stated one fact not generally known, that 
in the unhappy feeling which pervades the minds of some toward me I did not 
participate not having had anything to do with the Depot Location. 

The feeling is unescapable that the lack of entire harmony and enthu- 
siasm among the citizens over an event which should rightly have claimed 
unanimous approval, took the keen edge from Mr. Crocker's own pleasure 
in his moment of achievement. Not many pages farther on we find the 
following comment in Mr. Crocker's diary: 

Monday March 24. They press upon me the office of Pres. of the Vt. Road. . . . 
I am now to cut loose from those who have thus far kindly sustained me and 
embark in an untried field. I look to that Being who has ever sustained me whose 
I am and to whom I am soon to return. 

In April, Mr. Crocker again visited Washington to make a proposition 
to the Post OfBce Department for carrying the mail for four years includ- 
ing side service from Boston to Fitchburg for $6500. His impressions of 
President Polk, which history has not disputed, are of interest. "On Satur- 
day Eve I called upon Mr. President Polk who seems to be a second rate 
man but appears well. Mrs. Polk is richly attired changeable silk muslin 
cap &c." 

Wednesday, May 14, 1845. Took breakfast at Burns and Retd to Fitchburg 
after having met the board of the Fitchburg and resigned my connection with 
them after feeling an interest more engrossing than any yet felt I am called 



36 LIFE ^ND TIMES OF ^LVAH CROCKETi^ 

upon unexpectedly to sunder a tie for the success and perpetuity of the fortunes 
of the new effort which I am about to embark upon. 

On Sunday, August 24, Mr. Crocker went for the day to the seashore, 
and his sentimental disposition shows up in the following lines from the 
diary: 

Monday August 25, 7^45. Came from Boarshead to Newburyport in morning, 
visited the graves of my Fathers. Took a part of the sill of Grandfather house 
(Oak) home. 

These foregoing personal impressions of Alvah Crocker, while forming 
a somewhat disconnected chain of narrative, still serve to answer the 
question which we asked ourselves at the beginning of the chapter as to 
what sort of man he was, and with one more excerpt from his diary we 
will leave the reader to form his own conclusions: 

Tuesday Oct. 14, 184^. Just 44 yrs have I now toiled and struggled with life. 
I have felt the loneliness of solitude with scarcely a friend to lean upon. Stood 
upon the rugged cliff with no staff to support me. O if my Redeemer liveth shall I 
when life's struggle is over sleep in his bosom. 




GARDNER S. BURBANK 



Chapter V 
BUSINESS INTERESTS 

DETAILED information regarding the progress of A. Crocker & 
Co. between the years 1837 and 1850, when the firm of Crocker, 
Burbank & Co. was established, Is scanty. In spite of the extraor- 
dinary drain upon his time by public duties and the promotion of the 
railroad enterprise, Alvah Crocker conducted his personal affairs with 
increasing success. A disastrous fire in 1842 levelled in a night his best 
mill containing a large stock of paper and rags, which was only slightly 
insured, but this misfortune, like all others that fell to his lot, was over- 
come by his indomitable will. 

Undoubtedly the increasing pressure of affairs was the reason that 
led Mr. Crocker to seek a partner, and the selection of Gardner S. Burbank 
proved to be a wise choice. Mr. Burbank was a thoroughly practical 
paper-maker, a son of Abijah who built the first mill in Worcester County 
in 1775, and a nephew of General Leonard S. Burbank who built the first 
mill in Fitchburg and had been Mr. Crocker's employer. Mr. Burbank 
learned his trade in Montpelier, Vermont, and later worked in the Millbury 
mill under his uncle. General Caleb Burbank, as well as in Worcester under 
another uncle, Elijah Burbank. Subsequently he built a mill at Russell, 
Massachusetts, in partnership with Cyrus W. Field and Elizur Smith, 
which he left to accept Mr. Crocker's offer. At this time the production of 
the mills was i,5CX) pounds per day. Mr. Burbank was not in vigorous 
health, and retired from the business in 1866, having amassed a comfortable 
fortune, which has finally come by his will to found the Burbank Hospital 
in Fitchburg. 

It is a rather significant fact that of eight mills acquired by Crocker, 
Burbank & Co. between their establishment and 1874, Mr. Crocker was 
concerned in the construction of but two. The others were purchased by 
him from various men who attempted to undertake paper manufacture in 
Fitchburg. The Snow Mill, or Upper Mill, was built by S. S. Crocker in 
1839. Benjamin Snow, Jr., bought it in 1847, and it was sold by him and 
Samuel Whitney to Crocker, Burbank & Co. in 1862. The Cascade Mill, 
built about 1842, was owned first by S. S. Wheeler, George Brown and 
Joel Davis. It was later bought by E. P. Tileston, Jonathan Ware, and 
Franklin Wyman, who sold it to Crocker, Burbank & Co. in 1863. The 



38 LIFE ^ND TIMES OF zALVAH CROCKETR^ 

Upton Mill, now known as the brick mill, was built in 1851 by Edwin 
Upton and Alvah Crocker, and was acquired by Crocker, Burbank & Co, 
in 1859. The Lyon Mill was built in 1853 by Moses G. & B. F. Lyon and 
purchased by Crocker, Burbank & Co. in 1869. The Hanna Mill was built 
by George and Joseph Brown about 1852, passed into the hands of Samuel 
Hanna, who sold it to Crocker, Burbank & Co. in i860. The Whitney Mill 
in Rockville was built by Whitney & Bogart in 1847, was owned for a time 
by Crocker, Burbank & Co., and then passed successively into the posses- 
sion of Samuel Whitney and William Baldwin, Jr., from whom it was 
repurchased in 1868 by Crocker, Burbank & Co. The Stone Mill below 
the Snow Cascade Mills was built for the joint ownership of S. A. Wheeler 
and Joel Ames, who owned one-half, and Alvah Crocker, who owned the 
other half. In 1864 Crocker, Burbank & Co. purchased the interest of 
Wheeler and Ames, and the firm took over Mr. Crocker's half in 1871. 

The increasing business requiring more direction led to the admission 
to the firm in 1855 of Charles T. Crocker, the only son of Alvah. Mr. 
George F. Fay and Samuel E. Crocker, a first cousin of Alvah, were 
admitted to partnership in 1863. 

Charles T. Crocker was born in Fitchburg on March 2, 1833. After 
having received a public school education he entered his father's mills as an 
apprentice and learned the business thoroughly. He was twenty-two years 
old when admitted to the firm, and, while becoming less prominent as an 
initiator of enterprises than Alvah Crocker, he displayed genuine ability 
in "carrying on." At his father's death he succeeded him as head of the 
firm of Crocker, Burbank & Co., as well as in numerous other positions of 
trust. Under his management the paper company experienced a constant 
and successful growth, while it is largely indebted for its present success 
to his sons and grandsons. 

The years just previous to and succeeding the establishment of Crocker, 
Burbank & Co. comprised an exceedingly active and engrossing period in 
Alvah Crocker's life. He owned a chair factory and a machine shop, both 
of which were destroyed by fire in 1849. He was a leader in various activi- 
ties. In 1847 he was prominent in establishing the Fitchburg Mutual Fire 
Insurance Company, presiding at its organization and becoming a director. 
This office he retained throughout his life. He was also on the first board 
of directors of the Rollstone Bank, incorporated 1849, of which he became 
president in 1869. He served as a Trustee for the Fitchburg Savings Bank 
from 1 85 1 until his death. He was one of the original organizers of Christ 
(Episcopal) Church in 1863, and its senior warden to the day of his death. 
He gave the land for the church building, presented the organ and was one 










■^^^ - 



4 ,'h-Sj^' 



<"2:(^ v; 







"4 ^^ 



^^ 





2 






o 










LIFE ^ND TIMES OF ^ALVAH CROCKETi^ 39 

of its most liberal financial supporters. In the promotion and completion 
of a system of city water-works his activity is again to be noted. He played 
a leading part in overcoming the opposition which was raised to this proj- 
ect which is now recognized as having been one of the most important 
improvements ever made for Fitchburg. He was vitally concerned with 
the planning and promotion of the Hoosac Tunnel. In 1847 and 1848 he is 
said to have delivered several hundred lectures on the subject in New York 
and New England. Work on the Tunnel was begun in 1855, and Alvah 
Crocker became one of the commissioners, and superintendent when the 
State finally took over the responsibility. Of this and of the completion 
of the Troy and Greenfield Railroad, which also occupied much of his time, 
we shall hear in a later chapter. 

With the outbreak of the Civil War, further calls were made on Mr. 
Crocker. Always an ardent abolitionist, he threw himself with great zeal 
into all measures for the suppression of the rebellion. "Governor Andrew 
entrusted him with the honorable duty of caring for the wounded Massa- 
chusetts soldiers, and more than one patriot can testify that when funds 
were not available for the relief of his need, the money of Mr. Crocker was 
at once and judiciously drawn upon to convey the aid desired." General Ben- 
jamin F. Butler in a memorial address in Congress said of him — "Too 
advanced in years to take part in arms, he exerted himself to send forward 
troops, and while the war was waging he made a voyage to England and 
spent very considerable time in impressing upon the manufacturers of 
England the condition of our country and the necessity that there should 
be a community of interest and thought and mutual fellowship between 
those classes in both countries that represent the industries of the people. 
"When the war was over, not unmindful of those who had gone forth 
at his solicitation to battle for the country and laid down their lives in its 
service on the battle-field, he exerted himself with his accustomed power 
and vigor, contributing thereto largely of his own means to provide that the 
fallen heroes of his city should have one of the most elaborate and costly of 
the many monuments erected to the memory of those who fell in battle in 
that war, and fortunately lived long enough to see it completed, having 
made the address at its dedication but a few months before his decease." 
It is related that on first receiving the news of the final surrender of the 
Confederacy, Alvah Crocker gathered together a number of persons who 
happened to be in the vicinity of his house and asked them in to join in a 
prayer of thanksgiving. This act was thoroughly characteristic of his 
devout nature, though his life was more suggestive of the old Albigensian 
motto, "Work is Prayer." 



40 LIFE ^ND TIMES OF ^ALVAH CROCKETi^ 

In the midst of all these activities he became in 1862 a State Senator, 
doubtless feeling that in this position he could more effectively work for 
the extension of railroad connections with the West, which had been one 
of his earliest dreams. 

At the Centennial Celebration of the founding of Fitchburg in 1864, 
the speech of welcome was delivered by Hon. Alvah Crocker. Revealing 
as it does the warm-hearted geniality of his disposition, his pride in his 
home town and his constant yearning for its future success, it justly claims 
a place in this narrative. 

"It is my grateful duty, on behalf of the citizens of Fitchburg, in the 
briefest manner possible to bid you all, ladies and gentlemen, a warm and 
cordial welcome on this Centennial occasion, — a welcome to our hearts 
and homes and to all the joyful festivities of the day. To all who have 
either known or lived in this 'tortuous winding gorge,' this broken, rock- 
bound Fitchburg, or anything pertaining to, or belonging therein, she sends 
forth that good old Saxon word of 'Welcome.' 

"Men in the cycle of time, with our star planet set and revolved in its 
place among her sister stars and suns by the Great Architect and Builder 
Himself, we have been able to measure diurnally, monthly, yearly, till 
the nascent bound of this municipality counts one hundred years. As a 
young child rejoices in its birthday, so does Fitchburg rejoice with you 
in this her first measure of time. 

"How many hearts long separated but never forgotten send forth a 
quicker, a warmer pulsation in the sweet communion of to-day! How 
many 'God bless you's' will be intonated here as we see those who have at 
some time heretofore twined round us the tender cords of kindness and 
love! You whom I now see before me, by whom our thoughts have been 
raised from the sacred desk to the very portal of heaven, to-day you rewrite 
with us those very thoughts, those prayers and praises. You who have 
either taught us law or justice, or how to read in the district school, no 
matter if your lessons were in grammar, history or arithmetic, or have 
been forced into our little craniums by some twinges or compressions about 
our heads, God bless you! All now before me who have ever contributed 
to our history, to our physical, moral, social or intellectual development, 
Fitchburg bids a hearty, a cordial greeting. Perchance you left us twenty 
or thirty years since. If so, go with us where you left white birches and 
black alders. We will try and show you streets, roads and railroads span- 
ning our beautiful streams with stone arches, workshops and factories. You 
left us a hamlet; you find us almost a city. For a small valuation then, 
we show you millions now. Forgive us that we cannot show you more. 




ROLLSTONE NATIONAL BANK, FITCHBURG 

Alvali Crocker served on first Board of Directors and was President from 1869-1873. Henry A. 

Willis, President, holding the horse. John M. Graham, Cashier, standing in 
doorwav, on the right. Edward Wood, son of General .Moses Wood, first President of the bank, 

at left of doorway. 



ii 



LIFE ^ANB TIMES OF ^LVAH CROCKE\^ 41 

We have not removed all the excrescences, or polished this gem, this diamond 
of the valley, as we should have done in your absence, though if you will 
forgive and overlook our past shortcomings, we will try hereafter and do 
more and better. 

"Visit again, before you leave us, our hills and valleys, our groves 
and plains, our meadows, rocks and lovely Nashua. Go with us especially 
to yonder city of the dead, those consecrated spots where rest so many 
loved ones. Kneel with us there, while we cast our eyes upward with 
yearnings of love to their ethereal spirit homes. Bow, too, at the graves of 
those noble heroes who have shed their patriot blood for constitutional 
liberty. But I cannot delay you. I cannot say more than once more 
repeat a fond welcome to this reunion sweet to us, sweet indeed to every 
Fitchburg heart, — we trust it may be so to you. Though never to be 
enjoyed by us, together here indulge us in the prayer that it shall be the 
archetype of another reunion which shall be spiritual and perfect, where 
the tented canopy shall be the heaven of heavens, where God Himself, the 
glorious Deity, shall be the light and dazzling sun of our righteousness, 
and where His angels are our seraphs, and the Redeemer Christ the sun 
pole-star of our Celestial Cruise." 

Mr. Crocker was ever on the alert for the greater development not 
only of his own town but of neighboring communities. Hence, while 
searching for a more direct route between Greenfield and Millers Falls 
than that afforded by the Vermont and Massachusetts Railroad, his 
attention was attracted by Turners Falls. Seeing its possibilities as the 
site of a manufacturing town through the proper development of its water 
power, he organized the Turners Falls Company in 1866. He had dreams 
of a city which might some day rival Lowell and Holyoke as a manufactur- 
ing city, and although falling short of this accomplishment the town stands 
next to the Fitchburg Railroad and Hoosac Tunnel as the finest monu- 
ment to Mr. Crocker's genius and foresight. 

The Company acquired the property and franchises of an old organiza- 
tion known as "The Proprietors of the Upper Locks and Canals of the Con- 
necticut River in the County of Hampshire." Large land-holdings were 
also secured in the town of Montague on the river front near the falls, 
where a dam with a thirty-foot head and a capacity of 30,000 horse- 
power was erected. From then until the day of his death Mr. Crocker 
worked hard for the prosperity of the new town, spending large sums of 
money in promoting its interests and sparing no effort to enlist the aid 
and interest of other capitalists and manufacturers. Incomplete as was 
his work there. Turners Falls owes its existence as a town to him. He 



42 LIFE ^ND TIMES OF ^LVAH CROCKE%^ 

was a director of the Keith Paper Mill there, in the Montague Mills, and 
in the Turners Falls Pulp Company. He was also instrumental in induc- 
ing the removal of the John Russell Cutlery Works, of which he became 
a director, from Greenfield to Turners Falls. He organized and was 
president of the First National Bank of Turners Falls, now the Crocker 
National. He was active in organizing the savings bank, which has been 
named for him "The Crocker Institution for Savings." Charles T. Crocker 
succeeded his father as director of the national bank and trustee of the 
savings bank. 

But we must turn back for a space to review the great fight of his life, 
which began with his proposition for the Hoosac Tunnel, sarcastically 
known as "The Great Bore," and continued through a period of most 
bitter and vitriolic opposition under the leadership of Francis W. Bird 
of Walpole, but finally to be crowned with the successful opening of the 
Tunnel at the end of twenty-eight years. 



I 



i 




CHARLES THOMAS CROCKER 



Chapter VI 
THE HOOSAC TUNNEL ROUTE 

A FTER the completion of the Fitchburg Railroad had been effected, 
/\ Alvah Crocker might well have been content to rest on his laurels. 
JL JL Nevertheless, in full appreciation of all the difficulties involved, 
we find him already pushing forward by means of the Vermont and Massa- 
chusetts Railroad towards his ultimate goal, a through connection to the 
West via Northern Massachusetts. Ahead of him lay a struggle of titanic 
proportions, and with all his foresight he could not have anticipated the 
gruelling contest of twenty-five years against the combined opposition of 
man and nature, one scarcely less obstinate than the other. We refer to 
the construction of the Troy and Greenfield Railroad through the base 
of Hoosac Mountain. 

In 1848 a petition was entered in the Massachusetts Legislature for 
authority to construct a railroad "commencing at or near the termination 
of the Vermont & Massachusetts railroad at Greenfield, thence running 
westerly to some point in the town of Williamstown at the state line." 

Simultaneously there was pending in the New York State Legislature 
a petition for authority to construct a railroad from Troy to the state 
line of Massachusetts. The avowed objects of these petitions was the 
establishment of a line of railroad from Troy to Greenfield. The Western 
Railroad (now a part of the Boston and Albany), jealous of its monopoly 
of Western traffic, appeared in opposition. Its objection was based on 
the disastrous competition which it was claimed would be created. It 
was argued that the Commonwealth was as vitally interested as the road, 
to which it had loaned $1,000,000 and from time to time aided with scrip 
amounting to $4,000,000. The road had been opened from Worcester to 
Springfield in 1839, and completed to Albany in 1842, having paid on the 
average a dividend of six per cent, to its original subscribers. 

Finding the facilities of a single track inadequate, it was represented 
that a policy had been adopted of laying a second track towards Albany 
as fast as earnings of the road should permit the payment of a four per 
cent, semi-annual dividend. The legislature was beseeched to consider 
what the effect of the proposed lines would be upon existing lines equally 
beneficial to the public. No reasons were left unmentioned that could 



44 LIFE ^AND TIMES OF ^ylLVAH CROCKET^ 

contribute to the impression that a new line would be not only superfluous, 
but also dangerous to the success of the existing road. 

The committee was split in two by the arguments, four against three. 
The majority report agreed with the arguments of the remonstrants. The 
minority, however, found in favor of the proposed line, citing among their 
reasons the following: 

I. The water-power throughout the section to be traversed was abun- 
dant for various manufacturing purposes. 2. Evidence was given of the 
existence of manufacturers of woolen, cotton, iron, woodenware, leather, 
marble, lime and lumber on both sides of the Hoosac Mountain. 3. 
Elements of great freight were proven to exist fifteen to twenty miles west 
of Greenfield, such as soapstone quarries, serpentine quarries, hematite, 
etc., and extensive forests of timber needed for the chair factories were 
also shown to exist along the route. 

Furthermore, it was demonstrated that the distance between Boston 
and Troy would be nineteen miles shorter than over the Western line, 
and six miles less to Albany. Also it was made evident that the facilities 
and service of the latter road were so inadequate as to discourage business 
already obtainable, but which was being diverted via New York. 

The Tunnel route was considered to be feasible by Engineer Edwards, 
at an estimated cost of $2,000,000. In conclusion it was found that 
"State policy requires that just and equal privileges should be granted 
as far as may be to the citizens, and no section should be depressed that 
another would be elevated. It never could be fairly claimed that the 
Western road was to be the only avenue to the Hudson. Col. Loammi 
Baldwin, a distinguished engineer appointed twenty years ago to survey 
and report, favored a route now occupied by the Fitchburg and Vermont. 
The representative of Northern Massachusetts would never have favored 
State aid to the Western railroad to the exclusion of similar assistance to 
the Northern route at a later date." Indeed, Alvah Crocker himself had 
voted in favor of the aid that those who had enjoyed sought now to deny 
his own enterprise. 

Fortunately the report of the minority was decisive, and the petition 
was granted by the legislature. On February 9, 1848, the act to incorpo- 
rate the Troy and Greenfield Railroad was passed in the following words: 

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court 
assembled and by authority of the same as follows — 

Sect. i. George Grinnell, Roger H. Leavitt, Samuel H. Reed, James E. 
Marshall, Henry Chapman, Alvah Crocker, Jonas C. Heartt, Abel Phelps, Asahel 
Foot, Ebenezer G. Lawson, and Daniel W. Alvord, with their associates and sue- 



i 



LIFE ^ND TIMES OF ^ylLVAH CROCKETi^ 45 

cessors are hereby made a corporation by the name of the Troy and Greenfield 
Railroad Co. with all the powers and privileges, etc. 

^ Sect. 2. Said company are hereby authorized to locate, construct, and main- 
tain a railroad, with one or more tracks, from some convenient point on the Vermont 
and Massachusetts R.R. at or near the termination of said R.R. in Greenfield, 
through any or all of the following towns, viz.; Greenfield, Deerfield, Conway,' 
Shelburne, Buckland, Colerain, Charlemont, Hawley, Rowe, and Monroe, in the 
Co. of Franklin, and Savoy, Florida, Adams, Clarksburg, and WiUiamstown in 
the Co. of Berkshire to some point on the line of the State of N.Y. or of Vt. con- 
venient to meet or connect with any railroad that may be constructed from any 
point at or near the city of Troy, on the Hudson River, in the State of New York. 

Sect. 7. The legislature may after the expiration of 5 years from the time 
when such R.R. shall be opened for use, from time to time, alter and reduce the 
rate of toll or profits upon said road; but said toll shall not be so reduced, without 
the consent of said company so as to produce with said profits, less than ten % per 
annum upon the investment of said company. 

The outlook for the future was depicted in part as follows in the fourth 
annual report of the Vermont and Massachusetts Railroad, signed by 
Alvah Crocker: 

TROY SURVEY 

As the road to the Hudson by this line has progressed, and the portion to be 
built diminished by the extension of the Fitchburg & Vermont & Mass. roads, the 
public mind has manifested a strong desire to obtain positive and authentic infor- 
mation of the adaptation of the country for such a thoroughfare. Under an appro- 
priation from the Fitchburg and Vermont & Mass. Roads with the city of Troy of 
$3000, Mr. Edwards, an engineer of great talent and skill, has been employed to 
find the best route and summit by which to pass the Green Mts. (irrespective of 
all local interests) to the city of Troy. 

When we consider that the rich and increasing products of the Great West 
are unable to find vent, without expensive delays, by any existing transportation, 
and that the state of New York is still granting further facilities of communication 
to this immense traffic by new railroad avenues and by widening the canal, no 
one can fail to be impressed with the importance of constructing a road of the 
greatest possible capacity, which the best ground, aided by all the skill, experience 
and engineering talent which can be brought to bear upon it, will permit. 

The benefits will be great, beyond conception to all trade centering upon Troy 
and Boston, while the country between these points, so long neglected (especially 
the northern part of this Commonwealth) will reap the same advantages it has so 
freely contributed by its votes, to give the Southern portion thereof by the Western 
Road. 



46 LIFE ^ND TIMES OF ^LVAH CROCKET^ 

In 1 85 1 the new corporation appealed to the General Court for a state 
loan of $2,000,000. 

It is not surprising to find the Western Railroad appearing again in 
remonstrance, as another opportunity presented itself of blocking com- 
petition. The committee to whom the petition was referred, after hearing 
both parties, found in substance that the West was the undoubted granary 
of the United States. On the Erie Canal were transported to Albany in 
1850, 2,500,000 tons of freight, a large portion seeking the Atlantic. 
Of this amount the Western Railroad hauled but 60,900 tons to Boston. 
How much the road discharged en route does not appear but at least 
2,000,000 tons remained untouched by the Western road, a considerable 
portion of which was destined to various parts of New England. Much 
of it came by water to Boston and was redistributed from that point. 

Regarding the feasibility of the Tunnel, it was shown that tunnels in 
England varying from one-half to three and one-half miles in length and 
one in France four miles long had been constructed on an average cost of 
less than five dollars per cubic yard of excavation, including the expense 
of erecting the required masonry; hence it was supposed that the 350,000 
cubic yards of excavation requisite to bore through Hoosac Mountain would 
at a maximum not exceed $1,750,000. 

Mr. Edwards's cross-section plan of the Tunnel was submitted, and 
by the longest line and highest cost the estimate came to $2,000,000. 
Other engineers concurred, and their estimates seemed the more conserva- 
tive in view of recent improvements in drilling methods. Still more con- 
clusive appeared the willingness of contractors to undertake the work at 
the estimated figure, under their belief that progress could be made at the 
rate of ten linear feet per day. This would have meant the completion 
of the contract in 1,000 to 1,500 days. 

The connecting forty-two miles of railroad would require, according 
to estimates, a capital of $1,500,000, which added to the cost of the Tunnel 
would bring the total investment to $3,500,000. In addition to this a 
guaranty was to be produced from the Vermont and Massachusetts Rail- 
road, that it had spent in constructing its seventy-six miles of tracks, 
including its branches, $3,500,000. From this sum must be deducted a 
mortgage of $1,000,000. This entire property was pledged as security on the 
loan, a still greater pledge than was required of the Western Railroad. 

When the new petition for state aid was brought before the legislature 
in 1853 by the Troy and Greenfield Railroad, its old enemies appeared 
again in remonstrance. The State House halls rang with arguments rang- 
ing from serious reasoning to fiery sarcasm. An amusing example of 



LIFE ^ND TIMES OF ^LVAH CROCKER 47 

the latter is to be found in the following excerpt from the speech of Ansel 
Phelps, Jr., counsel for the remonstrants before the Joint Counsel for 
Remonstrants, Special Committee of the Legislature, on the petition of the 
Troy and Greenfield Railroad for state aid April 6, 1853: 

"The discussion of this very matter of a tunnel 4^^ miles long through 
the Hoosac in one place or another has occupied months of my life. I have 
passed weeks before committees, talked weeks, written weeks, dreamed 
weeks, all about this tunnel. I have in imagination after the lapse of 
several generations revisited the earth and seen the remote descendants 
of the present generation hard at work somewhere near the bottom of 
shafts 1,000 to 1,500 feet deep, and heard people along the line of the 
Troy and Boston road encouraging themselves with the hope that some- 
time in the course of the next generation their descendants would see 
daylight through the Hoosac Mountain, while the State Auditor annually 
reported the amount of debt and interest due from the Tunnel, and grave 
legislators were of the opinion that their ancestors had made a very 
permanent if not a very profitable investment. It may be said that 'this 
is the stuff dreams are made of,' but I submit to the committee that, 
fancy aside, I have had sufficient actual work as connected with this 
tunnel to warrant me in remarking that anything relating to it has an 
ancient, fishlike smell." 

In spite of all opposition, the legislature, convinced by the arguments 
and assured by the guarantees of the petitioners, passed the act granting 
$2,000,000 for the completion of the Tunnel. Contracts were made with 
E. W. Serrell & Co. in 1855 and 1858, and two others with Herman Haupt 
& Co. in 1856 and 1858. 

Obstacle succeeded obstacle, but nevertheless, more than one-twelfth 
of the Tunnel was excavated. Finally in 1861 serious difficulties arose 
between Haupt & Co. and State Engineer Whitwell as regarded the pay- 
ments on instalment from the state loan, culminating in the abandon- 
ment of the contract. Much work had been done at both entrances of 
the Tunnel. The east end heading had been driven 2,400 feet, the west 
shaft sunk 325 feet to grade and 56 feet tunneled from its base, while 610 
feet had been excavated from the west entrance. 

During the succeeding years, bitter strife was waged over the Tunnel 
in the Massachusetts Legislature. Pamphlet after pamphlet favoring 
complete abandonment of the scheme, as wasteful and hopeless, was issued 
by Hon. Francis W. Bird of Walpole, under such titles as "Our Theseus," 
"The Modern Minotaur," "The Road to Ruin," etc. 

Delayed but never discouraged, Alvah Crocker continued his mag- 



48 LIFE "AND TIMES OF ^LVAH CROCKET!^, 

nificent fight for the Tunnel, culminating in his great speech in the 
Senate of Massachusetts, April 15, 1862, on the Bill for the more Speedy- 
Completion of the Troy and Greenfield Railroad. 

As a text to his remarks, he quoted from Lord Bacon — "There are 
three things which make a nation great and powerful — a fertile soil, busy- 
workshops, and easy transmission of men and commodities from one place 
to another" — and from Calhoun — "Let us make permanent roads; not 
like the Romans, for subjecting and ruling provinces, but for the more 
honorable purpose of defence, and connecting more closely the Interests 
of various sections of this great country." 

Particularly addressing himself to those of his opponents who were 
opposed to the resumption of work on the Troy and Greenfield or Tunnel 
Road, he opened with a brief summary of the origin and history of this 
Northern Trunk Line, with a view to showing "what causes have so influ- 
enced public opinion, and to such an extent as to cripple and almost 
ruin us." 

As early as 1835 a thoroughfare to the West by the way of Fitchburg 
had been agitated, and partial survey was made. Alvah Crocker was a 
member of the legislature when the rival proposition of the Western Rail- 
road was propounded, and an appeal was made for state aid, after all other 
attempts to initiate the route had failed. He now reminded his hearers of 
the appeal of the late Judge Kinicutt to "some twenty-five of us who were 
supposed to hold the balance of power." "Assume, if you please," said 
the Judge, "that your route is better than the Southern or the Western 
one; if you are willing to identify the Commonwealth with such enter- 
prises, you establish a precedent, and the Commonwealth, to be just, to 
be consistent with herself, must aid you in like manner. Nay, every other 
section. She will never be partial, as you suppose, but fair to all. She 
will certainly go as far as she safely can, to develop and increase her growth." 
To this line of persuasion the Northern members had yielded, but as 
Crocker pointed out: "I suffered among my then constituency for that 
vote. I had joined in 'mortgaging their farms to build a railroad'; but I 
never regretted the act. I was also one of a committee of investigation 
about its doings in 1843, stood by the road then, and have ever done so to 
this day." This broad-gauged co-operation counted but little with the 
interests of Southern Massachusetts when Northern Massachusetts came 
before the legislators with a similar petition, but, said Mr. Crocker, "I 
do not. Sir, complain of this liberality to Southern Massachusetts; it was 
not only wise, but necessary, owing to the sparseness of the population 
beyond Springfield, as it is now to pass this bill to aid the towns beyond 







EAST END OF THE HOOSAC TUNNEL DURING CONSTRUCTION 






I 



LIFE ^AND TIMES OF ^LVAH CROCKETB^ 49 

Greenfield. Neither line could be accomplished without such aid. Nor 
will I forget in this connection the opinions and advice of that sound and 
practical man, Loammi Baldwin, Esq. — immediately prior to the legisla- 
tive session of 1836, in a visit to him at his house. 'You have got the route 
from Boston to the West, but your population is sparse through your 
whole line. You have no influential and wealthy towns like Worcester 
and Springfield to sustain you in the tunnel effort, and you had better not 
attempt it. You do not know what you are undertaking.' If I did not 
then know, Mr. President, I soon found out, on applying for the Fitchburg 
charter, precisely what talent and influence could do, in the language 
of the Senator from Norfolk [one of his chief opponents], 'to manufacture 
public opinion': 'Sir,' said the Senator from Hampden, 'a six-horse stage 
coach and a few baggage wagons will draw all the passengers and freight 
from Fitchburg to Boston.' 'I know the country,' said Mr. Mills, 'a 
miserable, narrow strip, between the Lowell and Worcester roads, and if 
these two corporations could but have time they would crush this effort 
out.' ... So also, thought Mr. Hale, of the Advertiser, concerning the first 
section. He, Sir, brought his high character and influential paper to bear 
on us, as he does now, on this third section, in the bill on your table; but 
he too, Sir, has lived to see the first section carrying more freight until 
the last year than his darling Worcester road." 

Untinged with bitterness, he continued the cold, straightforward 
recital of the endless sectional opposition from the winning of the charter 
in 1848 through the history of the Tunnel since the charter. The character 
and performance of Herman Haupt, the first engineer employed, was 
stoutly defended — the necessity for the new route was forcibly pointed 
out. The inability of the Western road to serve the needs of Boston was 
illustrated by the remark of a Chicago man: "Your Western road may 
be a very good road, but you do not run in connection with our lines, and 
charge altogether too much fare to expect our trade. Boston is fast becom- 
ing to New York what Salem is to Boston"; to which Mr. Crocker added: 
"While prices of freight have remained nearly stationary on the Western 
road till since the agitation of this question, they have been regularly 
reducing on the New York and other routes; thus turning it around 
instead of through the State. The consequence is that Boston is fast losing 
her export trade, as is shown by the returns in the last five years . . . show- 
ing a falling off of nearly 50 per cent . . . while New York has increased." 
The present predicament of Boston, handicapped by. freight differentials, 
seems to have had its duplicate in the early sixties, and Mr. Crocker's 
words apply to-day with the same force as when he uttered them. "Ought 



50 LIFE ^ND TIMES OF ^LVAH CROCKETi^ 

we not to change the above status? Can we not do it? Have we not all 
the elements to do it with — cotton domestics, woolens, shoes, woodenware, 
etc. ? We can if we will keep our manufactured goods, until sold, by giving 
the West a quick and cheap avenue to reach us. Money and trade will 
always go where it can find the greatest quantity for the same cost; no 
matter what the name of the city is. 

"Breadstuffs or corn . . . will follow trade, while every million of dollars 
we add to Boston we add to Massachusetts; every million of dollars we add 
to the taxable property of Northern Massachusetts by new sources of 
business proportionally increases Boston. Will she now, in the last effort 
to build the Tunnel, turn against us.?" 

The speech then turns once more from argument to the plain facts of 
the advantages offered by the new route — the shorter haul, the lower 
grades and consequently the greater economy of operation. The wants 
of the towns along the line are briefly sketched. The benefits to be 
derived are illustrated by the history of the benefits to Fitchburg from 
the first section of the road. Under its stimulus the town's valuation of 
$939,342 in 1840 had increased in i860 to $3,7i4,437> and its population 
from 2,500 to 8,000. 

The speech is concluded with the following stirring appeal to justice: 
"Do you not wish to place us on a footing with our sister sections? What 
have we done to be pursued with such bitterness, virulence and hate? Have 
we not as sacred claims upon our parent Commonwealth, as Springfield 
and Pittsfield, or any other section or municipality? Has our loyalty 
ever been less? Where, Sir, does this tunnel road start? Under the shade 
of what monument? What battlefields does it course? Where is Lexing- 
ton and Concord? Upon what line sleeps the dust of Davis, of Hosmer, 
of Prescott (who commanded at Bunker Hill, if any one did), all born and 
reared here, Sir? There is hardly a town upon the first section of this 
road which did not pour out its blood, mingling it with Essex, upon these 
battlefields, like water: Acton, Littleton, Lancaster, Groton, Pepperell, 
Leominster and Fitchburg. 

"Where, too, Sir, was Groton, was Lowell, the 19th of April last past? 
Sir, I say nothing in the way of boasting. Simple justice, I ask; only 
simple justice; but I go back to the Revolution again. It is history that 
the towns of the second and third sections of this road followed up the 
Deerfield upon this tunnel route, to join Stark, Warner and Robinson, in 
what turned the tide in our War of Independence, the battle of Benning- 
ton, so called, though it was fought in Hoosac upon the line of this very 
road in New York, giving by its results, to us, in the taking of Burgoyne, 



LIFE ^ND TIMES OF ^LVAH CROCKER^ 51 

England's rival, Bourbon France. Mr. President, the noble men of this 
very Northern Massachusetts passed up this very Deerfield River now 
under discussion to-day — over this very mountain, nay, over this very 
tunnel, to fight the battle of Hoosac at the mouth of the Walloomsac, 
as pointed to several Senators last week. 

"There, Sir, sleeps Captain Joslin of Ashburnham, who was the first 
to fall by Baum's muskets, with his comrades. Sir, this is a consecrated 
line. It is the Mecca for Pilgrim Patriots, as this tunnel will soon be the 
perpetual memento, the rich legacy to our children, of what Massachusetts 
could do in the spring-time of her history. It goes straight to Stillwater 
and Saratoga — thrilling, soul-stirring words — where New York and Massa- 
chusetts mingled upon one common altar their patriotic blood. The ques- 
tion to-day, this hour is. Shall these two peoples draw each other together 
more closely, in business, in friendship, by this low-graded iron river? 
The land of Schuyler, of Fulton, and Clinton (dignified in their day, too, 
as being great humbugs and swindlers, though I never heard of their being 
called 'myths') joined again with the land of Prescott and Warren. Sir, 
is Northern Massachusetts loyal now? Do we now withhold our life's 
blood or our hard earnings — harder, nay, vastly harder for want of rail- 
road facilities? Should the State higgle with us; stop this work, to be her 
future pride, about a slope, or an embankment, or a stick of birch or maple, 
and that too on a temporary structure, when you have only paid out to 
us, under a first mortgage security, one of the greatest lines in New England, 
or in the country, if accomplished, $725,000, when everybody knows that 
in 1843 both spruce and hemlock were used on permanent bridges on the 
Western road, in the Pontoosuc Valley, a road to which Northern Massachu- 
setts not only cheerfully voted five millions, but without interference or 
complaint. This timber was like the trestle bridging, the best that could 
then be used, until the road was done so as to draw better, from other 
sources. Even if it were not, what business had we with a Springfield 
road? What business have they with ours? Do they want to build us 
some more Athol bridges, or Troy depot buildings, by now breaking down 
our own contractors? Sir, I have heretofore said that New York and 
Massachusetts are now, as they were in the Revolution, not only contend- 
ing together to defend the best government that God in his mercy ever 
gave to the children of men, but are also contending against one of the 
greatest physical obstacles, destined to produce in its fruits, some of the 
greatest physical results and moral blessings. 

"Roanoke and Newbern, like the old battlefields, have again blended 
us together from Troy to Boston, with their fresh and bloody sacrifices, 



52 LIFE ^ND TIMES OF ^LVAH CROCKEfK^ 

new mangled victims and martyrs for free government. But, Sir, I will 
not dwell longer. Allow me now but one more single thought. Massa- 
chusetts is small in territory, her soil is sandy, sterile, rockbound; compare 
her with her sister States west of her, either in territory or in many of the 
elements of growth, she pales away almost to insignificance, but for her 
race of men. If you would have her maintain her high position, her noble 
pre-eminence and prestige, her present influence in our national councils, 
you must give to her every section. North as well as South, the best facili- 
ties for a full development of her resources, the means for the quickest 
transit and intercommunication, grappling with any and every obstacle 
which stands in the way, or in any way bars her from sustaining the most 
dense, active, industrious, and therefore virtuous population." 

The outcome of the struggle was the seizure of the Troy and Green- 
field Railroad by the State, including the Tunnel, in 1862, and the appoint- 
ment of a commission to examine and report on the work at the legislature 
of 1863. 

The commission recommended the prosecution of the work by the State. 
In October of the same year Thomas Doane became chief engineer and 
resumed operations where Haupt had ceased. The old bore at the east 
end was made available by cutting it to the required size, and work was 
commenced on the central shaft. 

Progress was painfully slow until 1866, when machine drills driven 
by compressed air were substituted for the old hand drills. This impor- 
tant invention was brought out by Charles Burleigh of Fitchburg. At 
once the progress was speeded up from a rate of about 49 feet to 1 1 5 feet 
per month, and Alvah Crocker characterized the drill as "a monument 
to the genius of Mr. Burleigh and a credit to Massachusetts." 

In January, 1868, Mr. Crocker, who had become commissioner in 
charge of the work and had also acted as superintendent for six months, 
submitted an interesting report covering the years since 1865. From this 
we glean many interesting facts and gather some striking additional 
examples of the characteristic workings of the practical mind of its author. 

He gives great credit to the chief engineer for his unremitting efi"orts, 
"his industry and fidelity," and never seeks to magnify his own actions, 
which he relates in the simplest manner. Referring to the important 
introduction of nitroglycerin, he says: "As long ago as February last I 
visited New York, and spent several days in endeavoring to ascertain if 
this article had been made there or in the vicinity, but to no purpose. 
Finding subsequently that the railroads refused absolutely to transport 
it, the matter rested until the first of July, when I addressed George W. 




WEST KND OF THE HOOSAC TUXXEL 

Looking northeast from the original surface level. In the background of the picture are the west 
shaft shanties which were occupied by workmen. 



LIFE ^ND TIMES OF ^LVAH CROCKER 53 

Mowbray, Esq., of Titusville, operative chemist, and with the permission 
of the commission he was called to North Adams and a contract concluded 
with him highly advantageous to the Commonwealth. The price for which 
Professor Mowbray was to furnish a pure article was eighty cents a pound. 
As the commission did not see fit to ratify the agreement, I turned over 
the same to Messrs. Dull, Goway & White. After waiting until November, 
and finding the contractors had done nothing, I again arranged with Pro- 
fessor Mowbray [as will appear in the appendix], from which the public 
will be gratified to learn that we are on the eve of giving it a fair trial." 
It is not alone in the work problems that Alvah Crocker's methods 
awaken our admiration. His genius for detail he carried to every depart- 
ment under him. We find, for example, that when he accepted the office 
of superintendent it was upon condition that the Boston office should be 
abolished, for by the system adopted by the old commission "the pay roll 
and accounts being approved by the engineer or superintendent, the cashier 
took them to Boston each month to be certified by the commission . . . 
more than one hundred and fifty miles distant. The cashier's expenses 
while away were very considerable, amounting to several hundred dollars 
annually." 

About this juncture the most disheartening difficulties were encountered 
in the shape of "demoralized rock" which when exposed to the influences of 
air and water ran like quicksand. In 1868 the State stopped work, having 
carried on the excavation to a distance of 9,338 feet, and leaving 15,693 
feet still uncompleted. 

Mr. Latrobe, the consulting engineer, urged in his report for 1867 that 
the work thereafter should be performed by contract. This question 
came before the legislature in the form of a bill which was enacted into an 
authorization for a contract, providing the entire work could be completed 
in seven years. The contract was at last awarded in 1869 to Walter and 
Francis Shanly of Canada for $4,623,060. 

The greatest credit is due them for the energetic way in which they 
pushed the work "until on Thanksgiving Day, November 27, 1873, at a 
distance of 10,134 feet from the west portal and of 2,050 feet from the 
central shaft the headings of the Tunnel met, with a variation of but nine- 
sixteenths of an inch. The last blast was discharged at about three o'clock 
in the afternoon. Before the noise attending the terrific explosion had 
died away, a line was formed with Mr. Shanly at its head and slowly 
advanced to the ragged opening, when Mr. Shanly courteously stepped 
aside, inviting Senator Sylvander Johnson, chairman of the Hoosac Tunnel 
committee, to be the first to pass through." It seems a pity that Alvah 



54 LIFE ^NB TIMES OF ^LVAH CROCKE%^ 

Crocker could not have been in Mr. Johnson's shoes, although he later 
had the pleasure of riding through the Tunnel on the first locomotive to 
make the passage. The first passenger train did not pass through the 
Tunnel until February 6, 1875, nor was Alvah Crocker destined to live to 
see that day. 

According to the report of the joint special committee on the Hoosac 
Tunnel and Troy and Greenfield Railroad for April, 1877, the Tunnel and 
its approaches cost the State more than seventeen million dollars, and 
over twenty-five years were occupied in its construction. One hundred 
and ninety-five lives are said to have been lost in the course of construc- 
tion. Subtracting the sinking fund of the Troy and Greenfield Railroad, the 
actual cost to the State of the Tunnel alone was $14,282,273.73. In 1887 
the Tunnel and the Troy and Greenfield Railroad were sold to the Fitch- 
burg Railroad for $5,000,000. 










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Chapter VII 
CONGRESSMAN CROCKER 

IN politics Mr. Crocker was a Whig, but after the demise of that party- 
he became a loyal Republican. In 1872, the late Hon. William B. 
Washburn having resigned from Congress to become Governor of Massa- 
chusetts, Alvah Crocker was elected, on January 2, to complete the term. 
At the time he had no knowledge of the affair, being absent in Europe, 
where he had taken his wife in the hope of restoring her health. Mrs. \ 
Crocker, who was Miss Lucy A. Fay of Fitchburg, had been married to 
Mr. Crocker April 9, 1851. She was the sister of Mr. Crocker's partner, 
George F. Fay. Her protracted illness and death in January prevented 
him from taking his seat until July 2, 1872, on which date the oath of office ij 
was administered. 

To the discharge of his political duties Crocker brought, in the words 
of Congressman Dawes, "the same enthusiastic zeal which characterized his 
every undertaking. He was nevertheless no partisan, and always fol- 
lowed his convictions rather than his party. He came into Congress late 
in life, and was not permitted to remain long enough in his work here to 
leave that personal or permanent impression upon the administrative 
policy or legislation of the country which experience often brings to the 
share of others. But he was not idle here, — he could not be idle anywhere. 
In the committee-room, as well as upon the floor of the House, and always 
in consultation, his practical knowledge and wise counsel were invaluable, 
while his genial disposition and flow of conversation made him a general 
favorite. It was truthfully said of him, 'He went directly at a thing 
in Congress as he would in his own business affairs, and in an earnest, 
homely way they were little accustomed to witness.' " 

At the time when Mr. Crocker's name was placed in nomination for 
a second term after his brief service of about three months, a letter signed 
"Vincent" appeared in the Fitchburg Weekly Reveille, September 19, 1872, 
which is worth quoting in part: 

When a man has devoted years to the accomplishment of an object, and has 
persevered when little inducement was offered him but an honest desire to act 
for, and to contribute to the public good, we may confide in him any trust with a 
safe conviction that he will never prove himself recreant thereto. Such a man is 



56 LIFE ^ND TIMES OF <lALVJH CROCKER 

Alvah Crocker. Though the highest confidence has often been reposed in him, it 
was never done but the more clearly to reveal how incorruptible was the man. 
If this be so of his business affairs, why should it not be likewise while representing 
his constituents in Congress. ... A chief argument in favor of Mr. Crocker is 
that he is a business man, and one that deals with theories, only as a prelude to the 
practise to which they are always put as a test of their soundness. All the business 
transactions of his life, the eminent success with which his labors have been crowned, 
illustrate the very point we would urge — that his theories have always been safe 
and sound. . . . 

Mr. Crocker makes a wise and judicious disposition of his wealth. He invests 
in such a manner as will tend to enrich the community, affording employment to 
the laborer and furnishing the necessaries of life at perhaps a cheaper rate than 
could otherwise be obtained. We need but glance at the thriving town of Turners 
Falls to be convinced of the intelligence and correctness of Mr. Crocker's views 
regarding the relation of labor to capital. . . . 

In sending Mr. Crocker to complete an unexpired term in Congress, the people 
testified their profound gratitude for his efforts in their behalf. They honored 
themselves by honoring him. Brief as was his experience he gained a name in the 
committee rooms of the House for a soundness of judgment, and an earnestness 
and vigor in asserting his views. Like his honored predecessor. Governor Wash- 
burn, he took little part in the wordy and profitless debates in the House itself, 
but devoted his entire attention to the real business at hand, and in deep recesses 
of the committee room was he to be found engaged. His short term of service 
expiring, he returned home to his business which had suffered by his absence, and 
which he had left only at the call of the people. 

Perhaps very few of his constituents are aware how much he accomplished in 
so short a time, but that he remained at his post in Washington until his affairs 
were all adjusted is sufficient evidence that he clung to his established business 
principles under the pressure of Congressional cares and duties. 

We advocate the return of Alvah Crocker to represent us in Congress. Let 
him be returned as by a single voice for a full term. In no other way can our deep 
sense of obligation be shown. In no other way can we testify our satisfaction 
with the manner in which he has already represented us. Let the people again 
unite on his name. 

Apparently this admirer was reflecting the widespread sentiment of 
Mr. Crocker's constituents, for he was re-elected to the Forty-third Con- 
gress by 14,919 votes against but 4,588 for the Democratic candidate. 
He fully justified the confidence of the people. Governor Washburn said 
of him: "When he entered upon his duties here he was over seventy years 
of age, and much of the time his health was so impaired that it was with 
difficulty that he attended to his official duties. In public as in private 
life he was strictly honest. He discharged all his duties in a most con- 



LIFE ^ND TIMES OF ^LVAH CROCKEfP^ 57 

scientious manner. No jobbery or corruption was ever traced to his door, 
but his entire record stands above suspicion." 

Mr. Wadleigh of New Hampshire only corroborated all the testimony 
above, when he said of Mr. Crocker, "He always manifested good sense, 
sincerity, praiseworthy fidelity to the interests of his constituents and 
enlarged patriotism." 

So much for the man as he appeared in public life, from the point of 
view of reliable contemporaries. Still greater interest attaches to his utter- 
ances in the House of Representatives, for in reading them we feel a sense 
of first-hand acquaintanceship. During the early days of his service in the 
House, much of his work was the presentation of various petitions of his 
constituents, among which it is interesting to note those of E. Murdock 
and fourteen other citizens of Winchendon, and of Rodney Wallace and 
twenty-three firms and individuals of Fitchburg, for reform in civil 
service. 

The first remarks of Mr. Crocker in Congress appear on page 18 14 of 
the Congressional Globe, 42d Congress, 2d Session, 1871-72, Part H. 
They have to do with the post-office appropriation bill, which Mr. Crocker 
wished amended so that "in the event of war the vessels of the line may 
be taken possession of by the United States Government for the exclusive 
use and service of the United States, subject, however, to such remu- 
neration and pay for the same as said government should deem just and 
equitable." 

In speaking to the question Mr. Crocker said — "But for a moment, 
Mr. Chairman, shall I crave the indulgence of the House. In looking 
over the bill it did seem to me there should be some safeguards thrown 
around this appropriation if it should take place. It did seem to me, sir, 
that this whole House, that each side of this Chamber, would agree to that. 
But I do not propose at this time to discuss the merits of this bill at all, 
but only to bring this matter before the House. It is always when we 
make a bargain, if it be made, that the thing should be perfectly understood 
on both sides. This will place this matter fairly before any corporation 
which takes an appropriation of this sort. 

"Now, sir, it has precedent, if not in this country, in England. In 
England her steamships are under the control of the Government. There 
are thirty-two, to my certain knowledge, in the Cunard Line alone, run- 
ning east and west, which can be converted at any time into storeships, 
carrying troops, or into men-of-war. This is the practice followed there, 
and it is so understood and written in their laws. I am fresh from that 
land myself, Mr. Chairman, which floats the flag of St. George, and while 



58 LIFE ^ND TIMES OF ^LVAH CROCKE%^ 

there I heard mutterings, over and over again, like this: 'Very well; if 
there is any disruption of the peaceful arbitration in reference to the Alabama 
claims, we will take a more speedy mode with our steamers and our great 
navy; we will take a more speedy mode of settling this thing.' Mr. 
Chairman, that was the saying I heard over and over again, that they 
would take a more speedy way of settling the difficulties. I am done. 
The amendment speaks for itself, and I have nothing more to say." 

The amendment with an addition prepared by Congressman Sargent 
of California was agreed to- — ayes 90, noes 56. 

Mr. Crocker seems to have been particularly effective in debate on the 
tariff, for it is here that he draws with so much force and conviction on his 
personal experience. The following remarks concerning the proposed 
tariff on coal and soda ash and bleaching powder reveal his knowledge, 
as well as a pardonable pride in his various business enterprises. 

Congressional Globe, 42d Congress, 2d Session, 1871-72, page 3208: 

Mr. Crocker. I have listened, Mr. Chairman, with no little interest to the 
remarks which have been made on the other side of the House in relation to this 
matter of coal. I heard my excellent and eloquent friend from Indiana [Mr. Kerr] 
while he expressed his views on the subject. That gentleman informed the House 
that all parts of this country were blessed with coal. I can tell that gentleman 
that there is one part of the country, that part of the country to which I belong, 
although a very small part of it, which has no coal at all or any expectations of 
ever finding it as long as we live. It is a primitive formation there, and I tell the 
gentleman that we have no hope whatever of ever finding coal. 

In connection with another portion of that gentleman's remarks, I beg leave 
to tell him that with the duty as it is they can bring coal from New Brunswick 
and Nova Scotia into our country, where we consume more than twenty-five 
thousand tons a year, more cheaply than from any coal field in this country. I 
care not about monopolies who are charged with committing a great and startling 
plunder upon the pockets of the people, but I go for a dollar, and I go for it for this 
reason: I take the eloquent words of the gentleman from Indiana that there is 
coal enough in this country. I take him upon his own ground, that there is coal 
enough in this country for years and years to come, and for that reason I go for 
the dollar. Ay, sir, and I would go for a dollar and a quarter if necessary. I look 
ahead. I am not looking merely for the present. I know that if we occupy that 
ground it will be as every other thing that is produced in the country, the price 
will be reduced in the end. 

If the gentleman is right in his premises, and I agree that he is, and I honor 
him for his statement; if he is right in his premises, and we have coal enough, ay, 
coal enough to last until the trump of resurrection shall sound, then let us encourage 
the production of it here, the bringing of it out of our mines, and not give that 



LIFE ^ND TIMES OF ^LVAH CROCKE%^ 59 

benefit to any outside party whatever. I am an American in every sense of the 
word. I will cheerfully give protection to coal until we get the price of it down 
below where it would be if we imported it from abroad. I am, myself, using it in 
great quantities, and yet I will give cheerfully a dollar a ton protection until we 
can get it at home cheaper than from Nova Scotia. I talk against my own colleague, 
I know; I talk against my own State. But I hope this amendment will prevail. 

Mr. Cox. . . . The gentleman from Massachusetts who has just spoken, in 
my estimation does not represent the prevailing ideas of Massachusetts as I gather 
them from the public journals. 

Mr. Crocker. No, I do not. ... I rise to a question of privilege. I have 
been asked by some friends whether I do not own about two-thirds of a coal mine. 
I never owned anything of that sort. I have no interest in any shape in the pro- 
duction of coal; on the contrary, I have paid Pennsylvania and Maryland thousands 
and thousands of dollars, which I am ready to continue to pay if we can only induce 
competition so as to bring down coal to a proper level where it ought to be. 

The necessity for protection to what were once called "infant indus- 
tries" is well set forth in the following remarks of Mr. Crocker on the 
subject of soda-ash: 

Mr. Chairman, I regret exceedingly myself that the duty upon soda-ash has 
been touched upon; and let me give my reasons in a single word. We have tried 
in this country, over and over again, to manufacture this article. Everybody 
within the hearing of my voice knows that soda-ash and bleaching-powder are 
kindred matters, and generally go together; they are generally made at the same 
works. Now, I have said that we have made repeated efforts during the last thirty 
years to manufacture these articles here, and every time we have made the effort 
firms in Great Britain, when they have found that we were making the article — 
and I undertake to say that we made a better article in Maryland than is made 
anywhere else — instructed their agents here to put down the powders until you 
have broken down the American manufacturers. Now, I use this article, by the 
ton every week, and I say that they have done that over and over again when we 
have attempted to manufacture the article, and they have broken down the manu- 
facture here; and after they had broken down the Baltimore works, where they 
had made better bleaching powder than elsewhere, and have broken down the 
manufacturer after he had invested $100,000 in it, they then put up powders. Our 
friends in England are supremely careful of their own interests. 

What is the United States paying for this article now.? We are paying a hundred 
per cent, more for them than they really are worth. We are paying for bleaching- 
powders today, or were the last time I had news from home from my own mills, 
and I have seven of them, six cents a pound, when, if we extended the shield of 
protection over these articles as we did before, we should be paying no more than 
three cents a pound in currency for a better article. I said I had seven mills, but 



6o LIFE -ylND TIMES OF ^LVAH CROCKET^ 

do not be alarmed. Paper is not the only thing I make, by any means. I make 
more money out of my farm than I do out of anything else. 

In the Appendix to the Congressional Globe of the Forty-second Con- 
gress, Second Session, 1872, page 363, we come across one of the most 
interesting speeches Mr. Crocker ever made. It is concerned with that 
"hardy annual" — the tariff. Showing as it does his attitude towards 
labor, his appreciation for the desirability of subsidizing our merchant 
marine, it is as interesting to-day as when it was written. The prophecies 
it contains of the future of the South as a manufacturing factor have now 
largely been fulfilled, and are illustrative of the foresight so characteristic 
of the man. Above all does his broadmindedness appeal to us in this speech. 
Although he never used tobacco, he would abolish the oppressive internal 
imports on the great products of Virginia and Kentucky, tobacco and 
whisky. He never seems to look at any problem from a sectional point of 
view. It was the good of the country as a whole which he sought. As he 
quite truly of himself said on another occasion: "The people in this 
country are all my constituents from one end of it to the other. I do not 
stand here for any particular set or class." 

Mr. Crocker's speech is as follows: 

Mr. Chairman, I commence with the assertion of this principle: that when 
we properly protect American labor in any manufactured article until capital, 
skill and American enterprise come fairly to its production, the article will become 
cheapened until it reaches a mimimum level, lower than can be attained if the 
country is solely dependent for its supply upon the monopolies of Europe, even 
with its starved and beggared operatives; because so soon as the foreign producers 
can break down the manufacture in this country of any article, the price of that 
article will rise to the last mill of the dollar that they can wring out of us. Encour- 
agement of domestic production, is, therefore, no less for the interest of American 
consumers than of American labor and capital employed in production. 

But the great consuming class of this country are laborers also, and the interest 
of labor is the most important element in the protective question. Can the labor 
of this country contend unaided against the degraded labor of Europe? I speak of 
the degradation of labor in Europe, not from books, but from my own personal 
observation. I have seen, Mr. Chairman, two hundred women in a gang carting, 
or rather carrying, dirt in baskets strapped to their backs, to make railway embank- 
ments, the engineer saying to me he preferred them to men; they were more endur- 
ing. When stepping out from one of the largest factories in Europe with the super- 
intendent at night I have met half-nude girls literally kneeling on the ground and 
praying "in the name of the Blessed Virgin" to have employment the next day 
at twelve sous daily. ... In England, where labor is better paid than on the con- 




Th- 



CDMPRESSED-AIR POWER PLANT, DEERFIELD RIVER 

■ hiiikting in the foreground contained the machinery which drove the drills, over a mile away, into 
the earth. On the hill just behind are Engineer Ellis's house and the office. 



I 



LIFE ^ANB TIMES OF .ALVAH CROCKET^ 6i 

tinent, I have seen fifty girls in a stifling room, half-naked, doing labor too revolting 
to name. At one establishment, where the female operatives were apparently well 
treated, one of them said to me: "We are too poor to marry. I have had four 
children out of wedlock. Thank God they are all dead." 

Prostitution, the child of poverty, is brazen and rampant, while the poor rates 
are increasing every year. Even the noble bequest of our honored countryman, 
Mr. Peabody, who had a heart, and who for thirty years had seen the misery of 
the poor in England, is taxed, or rather the tenement buildings which he constructed 
are heavily taxed for poor rates — a shame and disgrace to England — while the 
estimable friend of this noble man, Mr. Somerby, of Boston, acting treasurer of 
this bequest, assisted by such men as Lord Derby, has assured me that they had 
been unable as yet to purchase land for further tenements to shelter the poor — 
to absorb the whole fund, a balance remaining of some fifty thousand pounds — 
because of the unmitigated curse of entail in England. 

This is the country which some of us have been lauding on this floor, the country 
which destroyed our commerce by registered pirates, or compelled us to sell at its 
prices the proudest merchant marine that ever floated. We hear it asserted that 
the decay of our commerce is due to the protective policy, and that free trade will 
restore it. I dissent from this view. This decline is mainly the result of the tran- 
sition from the old system of sailing vessels to steamships, through which latter, 
built up by mail appropriations and subsidies, the English are able almost to 
monopolize the carrying trade of the world. If you will pursue the same course 
before it is too late, and by that means place our merchants on a par with the 
English merchants, and let American energy and skill feel that on the ocean as well 
as on land their Government will stand by them, then our commerce will resume 
its ancient channels. 

An intelligent manufacturer said to me in England: "We are compelled to 
adopt free trade because we are dependent for so large a portion of our raw material 
upon other countries; but we control the seas, and have the East Indies with a 
population of two hundred millions and suzerainty over some fifty millions more. 
We have Australia, the West India Islands, the Canadas, and by our quick steamers 
control their trade. We get our best sales at home; next, in the countries we control; 
then in South America; and the balance of the goods which you do not buy here, 
sometimes twenty to thirty per cent, annually, we send to New York and order 
them sold under the hammer." 

But, Mr. Chairman, I must hasten to the manufacture which we have im- 
mediately under discussion. Sixty-two years ago this coming month, I was put 
into a paper factory at the tender age of eight years. I lived with my mother, 
without allowance for board, and worked twelve hours daily at twenty-five cents 
per day. My only remission from labor, with the exception of a single winter, 
was six weeks a year, when I was allowed to go to school. In the latter part of the 
first ten years of my factory life, compensation being somewhat increased, I had 
sixty dollars a year with my board. In the later years of my life I have been able 



62 LIFE ^ND TIMES OF ^LVAH CROCKE%^ 

to employ the labor of others in the same manufacture. I mention these personal 
facts only to show that I have had a practical experience in the paper manufacture 
through a very long period, and speak with some authority. 

Now, I assert, Mr. Chairman, from this personal knowledge, that with the 
exception of the period of the war of the rebellion and times of temporary droughts 
paper has been, under all your protective tariffs, receding in price and improving 
in quality. Cap paper, whether brought from England or made in this country, 
which cost in former times $4.50 per ream, could of the same quality be bought 
for $2.50 per ream, while the same prices of "hand-made" paper used when I began 
is in use to this day abroad where labor is cheap, both in England and on the con- 
tinent. We have made improvements in machinery and processes under the 
stimulus of protection which have enabled us to reduce our own prices and keep 
down the prices of imported paper. I do not hesitate to say that paper will still 
recede in price if we maintain a wise system of protection. To show that I am not 
mistaken in this assertion I ask leave to insert a table of prices for the last five 
years, obtained from the Superintendent of your Printing Office, Mr. Clapp. This 
table shows a reduction of more than twenty-five per cent, within that period in 
the teeth of an export duty on rags in almost every country and an increased cost 
in feltings, wire, and in bleaching-powders and soda-ash. 

Schedule of Prices of Printing Paper, 24x38, of Different Weights, 
Sized and Unsized, and Writing 

Printing Paper 1867 1868 1869 1870 1871 1872 

Cents Cents Cents Cents Cents Cent* 
45-pound 24 X 38, calendered, 

per pound 19.27 15.48 14.37 14.53 lS-o6 13-98 

53-pound 24 X 38, calendered, 

per pound 23.85 17.40 17.47 16.88 16.78 16.49 

45-pound 24 X 38, calendered, 

per pound 26 20 17}4 I7-30 17-62 16.62 

Map Paper, per pound ... 29 ig^i 17}^ I9 20^^ 18.92 

Writings, per pound .... 30 23 21%" 22 21 2ofS 

Engine-sized, per pound . . 21.74 18-48 16.23 15.44 I5>^ I4-9S 
Tinted, calendered, per 

pound — — — 17-90 17-65 I7-" 

Export duties on rags in the various countries of the world: 

In Russia — ports in the Baltic and White seas and by land . . . 

Ports in Black and Azoff seas 

In Sweden 

In Norway (old rags) 

In Norway (cordage) 

In Denmark (rags) 

In Holland (rags) 

In Holland (cordage) 

In Belgium (prohibited except through France) . 

In France (prohibited except through Belgium and Great Britain) 



£6 

2 


¥■ 

I 


7d 
8 


2 
3 


9 
16 


9 
6 


I 
2 
8 
2 


5 

6 

8 

10 


5 
3 
4 



4 
4 


17 
17 


2 
2 



LIFE ^ND TIMES OF ^ALVAH CROCKET^ 63 

Let me call the particular attention of the committee to the important con- 
sideration that in reducing the paper tariff we do a great injury to the South and 
West, who are largely entering into this manufacture, the South especially; ay, 
sir, the South, my constituency, by my solemn oath, as well as the district whose 
votes have sent me here, now struggling to restore itself by diversifying its labor, 
needs the same tariff on paper which has given confidence to capital at the North 
to invest in this manufacture. The South, if sustained in its "struggle for life," 
is bound to be a great manufacturing people, not only in cotton and woolens, but 
especially in paper. They have the best of rags— that I know from my own obser- 
vation; cotton waste, Kentucky rope, and every kind of raw material used in this 
manufacture. Contiguity to the paper factory raises the price of rags, and this is 
a boon to the poor families which produce them. 

The great benefit to the South, however, from the introduction of this manu- 
facture, is that the paper manufacture is a pioneer industry, and where one manu- 
facturing industry has been introduced, others are sure to follow in its train. 
Labor is thus diversified. A portion of labor is drawn from agriculture, while 
the profits of agriculture are increased by new consumers. Why, in view of the 
present necessities of the South, should we of the East seek to disturb a tariff 
which has done so much for us, until it has done the same for them.? I, for one, 
would rather buy as I am buying, through my house in New York, paper made in 
the mills of the Carolinas than the products of England and Belgium. While the 
cry from Virginia and the Carolinas is, "We are exhausted by a terrible war; help 
us, oh help us, to capital," why, why, I say, cut them down now.' 

But, sir, it is said we must cut down somewhere. Then I say abolish your 
internal taxes. What right have you to tax by your oppressive internal imposts 
the great products of Virginia and Kentucky, tobacco and whisky.? I know. Air. 
Chairman, that this is bold talk. Still, I repeat, what right have you to single out 
these articles, the chief products of these great States? You reply that they are 
injurious luxuries. I protest against the hypocrisy which makes morality a pretext 
for oppressive and unequal taxation. I have never used tobacco, but I can well 
conceive that to the soldier on the damp camping-ground, and the sailor in the 
wet forecastle, the so-called luxury may be a necessity, as it is the chief solace of 
his hard life. Is not whisky something besides an injurious luxury.? Who does 
not know that spirit is the basis of many of the mechanical arts, the solvent, for 
instance, of all the aniline dyes which ornament printed fabrics, and the basis of 
nearly all the medicines used in the healing art.? You say that England derives 
her chief revenue from a tax on these two articles. Do you not know that she can 
afford to do it, because tobacco is not grown upon her soil, and she cannot raise 
the corn and rye for spirit distillation? If we had brains we would not, for the 
sake of imitating England, repress by taxation the increase of the two great prod- 
ucts, tobacco and corn, of which we have the natural monopoly as distinctly as 
we have that of cotton. 

Sir, abolish every internal tax; make free every article which our people can 



64 LIFE zAND TIMES OF ^ALVAH CROCKER 

never produce; preserve the system of revenue which shall spread broadcast over 
the land manufacturing and mechanical industries; give to the South and West 
the same chance which we of the East have had for ourselves. When the countries 
on the other side of the water shall have abolished entail and feudalism, and aban- 
doned the system of political economy which makes the welfare of the many sub- 
ordinate to the wealth of the few, so that God's children shall have a fair chance on 
God's earth for tillage and enjoyment, then, sir, it will be time enough to talk about 
the vagaries and sophisms of free trade, and to take the countries of the Old World 
for our models. 

The Republican doctrine of our own time that our duties should repre- 
sent the difference between labor costs here and elsewhere was clearly fore- 
shadowed in Mr. Crocker's premise that "the interest of labor is the most 
important element in the protective question." Who can deny that an 
honest adherence to this principle throughout the years would have 
gone far to save the Republican party from the accusation that it has been 
too often the friend of "special interests".'' Our "hindsight" over and over 
again has been matched by his foresight. 

With all the serious problems that surrounded his life and impeded his 
efforts, one might have expected that Mr. Crocker would have become a 
too serious-minded and stolid personality. On the other hand, we believe 
that not the least of his ability to overcome difficulty after difficulty sprang 
from his buoyant disposition and keen sense of humor. Indeed, he had 
more than a passive appreciation of fun, he could be humorous himself, 
and we find his speech on the salary bill, delivered December ii, 1873, 
fairly punctuated by the laughter of the House. Yet unlike many who 
have indulged in humor "on the floor," he did not sacrifice his influence 
by creating an audience which demanded to be amused rather than 
instructed or convinced. Behind his fun was a character too solid to 
be misconstrued. 

Congressional Record, 43d Congress, ist Session, Vol. in, p. 161, 
December 11, 1873: 

Mr. Speaker, I crave the indulgence of this Chamber for a few minutes. I had 
intended, if I got the floor at an earlier period, to treat upon this subject at some 
length; but in the present stage of the discussion, when it has been so completely 
gone over, and when men have gone clear back to the time of Christ, in search of 
information, I deem it my duty to do no more than to place myself right upon the 
records. I owe that much, at least, to myself, to the House, and to the constituency 
whom I have left at home and who have returned me here by an overwhelming 
majority. 




STEAM-DRIVEN AIR COMPRESSORS AT W I'M I.M) i >i 1|||.. ilWhl. 
These air compressors furnislied power for driving drills 500 feet into the ground. 




THE BURLEIGH DRILL AT WORK 
The first interior taken of the Tunnel. The smoke in the picture resulted from the flashlight. 



LIFE '^ND TIMES OF <^LVAH CROCKEfR^ 65 

At the time the salary bill came up I deemed it inopportune. I did not think 
it was then a proper time to increase salaries. We had just gone through an inter- 
necine struggle to save the national life which had exhausted the whole country, 
North and South, East and West, and I did not feel that it became us to yield to 
any increase of pay whatever. I opposed it at that time in season and out of season. 
I did everything in my humble way, except by speeches upon the floor, to prevent 
its passage. But, sir, while I did that, I am not the man to attempt to affix the 
brand of condemnation upon those who acted differently from me at that time. 
I believe they were as honest and as sincerely desirous to do their duty as I was 
to do mine. I am not here to believe that those who have been branded over and 
over again for their action on this salary bill are any worse than I am myself. Per- 
haps, sir, they are much better. 

There were various things which occurred at that time to which I will allude 
for a moment. I shall speak briefly. There were various things at that time 
brought to the consideration of the House which led those gentlemen to act as 
they did. I mean to be, and if I know my own heart I am, a candid man, acting 
according to the dictates of my own conscience. At that time there were charges 
of corruption made which were spread broadcast throughout the country, made 
against members in this and the other branch of Congress; and there was a feeling 
here among some of the best thinking and wisest men upon the floor of the House 
that it was our duty to increase the pay to such an extent that members would be 
removed from any and all temptation. Such was the feeling which existed at the 
time, as every member knows. Many members came to me and said they could 
not pay their actual expenses, and if the pay were not increased would have to 
go home in debt. I felt that, and appreciated the motive which actuated those 
who honestly differed from me in the course which they took at that time. 

There is another thing. It was felt that the abolition of the franking privilege, 
the abolition of mileage, and the abolition of our stationery allowance went very 
far towards counterbalancing the increase of our pay. I promised to be brief, 
and I am watching the dial of that clock; but I want to allude to another thing, 
which is not understood, I believe, on the floor of the House very fully. I do not 
say it in any disparagement of the city of Washington, for I am proud of the city; 
but I do say, Mr. Speaker, that there is not so expensive a place to live in, within 
my knowledge, anywhere in any capital of the world, as this very city of Wash- 
ington. My friend from Ohio [Mr. Lawrence] saw a placard, "Farmers to the 
front, and politicians to the rear." I wish he would invite farmers here with their 
families, and let them stay for a fortnight, and, my word for it, they will begin 
to feel it down here [slapping his pockets]. Farmers to the front! They are good 
men; but if they bring their families and stay here, I would like to see their pockets 
at the end of the month. I have lived in London and Paris, and I say that there is no 
capital where the expenses of living are so high as in Washington. What is the reason .? 
The cities of London and Paris live upon trade. What does this city live upon.? 
I do not blame them; they are obliged to do it, and we have to face the music. 



66 LIFE ^ND TIMES OF ^ALVAH CROCKE%^ 

Several Members. Say what it is. 

Mr. Crocker. Do you want to know? Look at your bills. A hundred dollars 
a week is what I have to pay for myself and my wife. I wanted to bring my family 
here, and I began to look to see where I was going to land myself. But I promised 
to be short, Mr. Speaker. [Cries of "Go on."] No, I won't. But I will say a word 
about back pay, about which we have heard so much. And I am in that category. 
Yes, I am in it. I have collected all my pay here according to law — every cent; 
and nobody need ask me about it. In regard to the back pay let me say that 
when I returned from Congress at first, without knowing what the country thought 
about it, I asked various members with whom I was intimate if they would join 
me in an association in order to leave the pay entirely. That was my feeling at 
the time. Mine was a small matter, Mr. Speaker; I was only here a fraction of 
the term. Old as I am — and I believe I am the oldest member in the House — I 
was a mere parvenu, a neophyte here; I had been here only a very little while, 
and I had got a very small sum of money. Well, I tried to get a little company 
to join me, as I have said, and I failed. I found some noble men who had great 
doubts about it, but who finally concluded that they would give their back pay 
for the improvement and education of the young. I found there were all sorts of 
plans, and then I finally deposited my own in one of my banks. Thinks I, it will 
lie there safe enough. After a while I became grievously sick. I had not made 
up my mind — I had not actually made up my mind — what my conscientious duty 
was. So, being very sick, I called my confidential clerk, and said, "Here, put the 
amount to the credit of the United States. It is a small amount, but there will 
be enough effects to meet it, and my executors will take care of it." I did it 
because I intended to do right about the matter. Now comes the sequel. I 
began to get better. I took up one paper, and it told me I was a "salary stealer"; 
I took up another, and it said I was a "salary grabber"; and another one said this, 
and another one said that; and then by and by I began to open letters on the 
subject, and have continued to do so up to this day, and so long as this clamor con- 
tinues, unless by the act of this House here, that money will lie where it lies now. 

Now I say that boldly. I do not act from intimidation. I act only from my 
own sense of duty to my God and my country. I had a letter since I have been 
here which gives us a glorious idea. I think something was said by the gentleman 
from Georgia [Mr. Stephens] to-day that we ought to lead public opinion a little. 
But I got a letter the other day informing me that the best place for me was down 
at Blackwell's Island, and that I should find some company there that was very 
congenial. Now, sir, I was sent here to this House, to take the oath administered 
by yourself, by every vote in my own city, where I have disbursed millions and 
millions of dollars. But if, in coming here, I am to be called a salary thief, I shall 
retain that money until there is a better feeling in the country, unless Congress 
shall vote in the matter and direct otherwise; and then I shall cheerfully pay my 
little stipend into the Treasury. In closing, I appeal to my friends on this floor 
that we will come to some conclusion at once, and let it be a unanimous one. 



LIFE ^ND TIMES OF ^LVAH CROCKEK^ 67 

I have been gratified to-day by the dignity and decorum and propriety which have 
characterized our debate. It is worthy of such a House of Representatives, emanat- 
ing from the most free and glorious Republic that the sun ever shone upon. 

It has been said of Mr. Crocker that "he went directly at a thing in 
Congress ... in an earnest homely way, . . ." but on more than one occasion 
his speeches have departed from the "homely way" and risen to the heights 
of oratory more or less characteristic of the times. Such was the speech 
which he delivered in the Forty-third Congress on the subject of the 
appropriation for the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. 

Congressional Record, 43d Congress, ist Session, Vol. 114, 1874, pages 
3672-3673 : 

Mr. Chairman, I have very grave doubts whether I will be able to occupy the 
floor long, and if not, I shall throw myself upon the courtesy and kindness of the 
House for leave to print what I would say. I have just emerged from an attack 
of pneumonia and fever, and my voice is anything but what it ordinarily is; and 
a good many other gentlemen here will soon be in the same condition, if we con- 
tinue pursuing the same course we have heretofore — sitting here in a room that 
has none of the air of heaven in it at all, except that which is pumped up in an 
artificial way from underneath. 

Sir, before I come particularly to the points I propose to make, let me say 
that some weeks ago I said something upon this matter of this exposition. It was 
said on the spur of the moment, but I said it with all the reluctance of a man borne 
down as I was, and as I believe every member of the House is, with a knowledge 
of the paucity of our means and of the want of everything that belongs to a nation 
so prosperous as we are — I said then, that I should be willing and ready to vote 
for a reasonable appropriation for this international exposition. I did it then, 
sir, under a pressure, and what was that pressure? I have witnessed the effect 
of these gatherings here on a small scale, and I have witnessed the effect of them 
on a large scale when abroad. I have seen in the mother-country, Mr. Chairman, 
the great gatherings of her people at turf meetings and at agricultural exhibitions 
and other occasions, and in 1871 I saw the gathering of the whole wealth of that 
wonderful island in the Crystal Palace in London. Sir, there was collected together 
there stock, manufactures, productions of every kind from England, Scotland 
and Ireland — no; I beg pardon; from England, Scotland and Wales. Ireland 
being little else than a stock-raising and agricultural country, which sells its prod- 
ucts at cost, and buys principally its fabrics for use at 50 per cent, profit, had 
but little in its poverty to send to that exposition. Their meetings of the turf, 
their agricultural shows and other gatherings, not only make them a homogeneous 
people, but completely nationalize them. When I witnessed these spectacles, 
visiting them frequently and examining them in all their various departments, I 
realized the immense wealth of the little island, England and Wales, together not 



68 LIFE 'lAND times OF ^ALVAH CROCKET{^ 

making quite fifty thousand square miles. During my visits to England I saw the 
effect and influence of these great national gatherings. To sum it up in a sentence 
in prose, as expressed in a song which I heard among the lowly — "Old England, 
with all your taxation, we love thee still; we love our noble Queen, the personifica- 
tion of dignity to her sex and honor to humanity." Such a people, such a national- 
ity, can never be conquered, and the flag of the Cross of Saint George can never 
quail or lose its power. Sir, I could not but feel and say, "Would that we could 
have a national exposition and bring the people of this great continent, of this 
great Republic, from Maine to the Rio Grande, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, 
once, at least, together." 

To return, this animus impelled me to a reasonable appropriation, and I say 
now, as I have said before, it is false economy to withhold it. 

Nobody regrets our shortcomings more than I do. Sir, we put the knife in 
too deep during the last session in retrenching customs and internal revenues, 
so that we cannot even provide for a sinking fund, much less can we pay for any- 
thing of this kind. But, sir, if those with whom I act upon this floor have courage 
enough, we will put on additional taxes sufficient to make ourselves right, and not 
mortify the nation's pride by showing the white feather in relation to this matter 
of celebrating the one hundredth anniversary of our Government. We have meddled 
with state rights when there was no exigency; ay, sir, we have even interfered 
with individual rights, and undertaken to fix the hours of labor, as if I, a laboring 
man, am to be told how many hours I may work. Sir, I have always worked ten, 
twelve, or fourteen hours a day, and whatever God has given me has come by 
hard work; but here under the Government a man is only required to work eight 
hours a day, or if he works more than that his pay is increased in proportion. There 
is not a shipbuilder in this country who cannot build ships cheaper than the Govern- 
ment. We have in consequence emasculated our navy-yards by making eight 
hours a day's work; and as the able chairman of the Committee on Ways and 
Means said, we had better begin to sell them, as private yards do not work less 
than ten hours per day. And so with our printing office; the work done in that 
office cost us nearly two dollars last year where it ought to have cost one dollar. 

Another source of our national poverty, so that we cannot do what the nation's 
pride demands, is demoralization. What customs we collect are not half done. 
We give spies and informers half they can collect and worm out of some timid 
merchant, who, rather than lose all his books and, as he foolishly supposes, his 
character, compounds; while the internal revenue officers — some of them, at least — 
sit in their easy chairs and let the harpies of greed and plunder do their sworn 
duties at the halves. No wonder, sir, that we are poor and cannot meet a national 
want; and until reforms are instituted (and I give to the Committee on Ways and 
Means credit for their efforts) we must be poor indeed. 

And now, Mr. Chairman, I repeat what I have once said on the impulse of the 
moment, that the day itself committed every American heart, and that our friends 
coming from the other continent to this exposition and comparing what we have 




EXTR.WCE TO THE W I'lST SHAFT 

A group of miners about to descend the west shaft with their Burleigh drill. The man in the 

elevator standing by the drill is William H. Bailey, head draftsman 

and assistant to Mr. Haskins, the superintendent of the Burleigh Rock-Drill Company. 



LIFE ^ND TIMES OF ^LVAH CROCKEK^ 69 

accomplished in one country against the ages of their existence, in levelling forests 
and building cities and railroads, their progress would seem small and diminutive 
to them as compared with ours under the influence of our freer institutions. 

But, Mr. Chairman, I do not advocate this exposition on account of those 
who may visit us from other countries, of whatever class. They will all receive a 
warm welcome and every attention that is due to them. We never fail in this 
respect; but I advocate it and the appropriation on the ground of its beneficent 
influences upon ourselves, bringing our great family together from all parts of the 
country. How rapidly this will be accomplished by steam and the iron rail, we 
all know. There we shall meet and compare views, wear off prejudices, contract 
friendships which will continue until we reach that narrow house which is the last 
of earth. Yet I am not indifferent or oblivious to other countries and peoples who 
will come here to examine into our internal policy, modes of thought, progress in 
science and education, the arts and mechanics. No, sir; I hereby acknowledge our 
debt to the German, Scandinavian, and other bloods, who have made some of our 
best citizens. God bless them! Let such come over now and see their kindred. 
Nor am I anxious that they should ever go back again. 

I look at this as an occasion when we shall not only come together and know 
ourselves, but know how much we depend upon each other; know what the East 
owes the South and West, and what, if anything, is due to us in return. Let us 
see the best specimens of production, the cotton, rice, sugar, etc., of the South. 
Ay, sir, and we will hail the production of any fabric they shall exhibit as a promise 
of future success in the same. We will also see the great West there, with all its 
cereals and manufactures, increasing every day in all the pride of Berkeley's proph- 
ecy, "Westward the star of empire takes its way," sure to come, when the East 
will be small, attenuated points in the galaxy of stars against their broad acres. 
I wish to see the people of this country gathered together on an occasion which will 
make one heart of us all — a great national throb and pulsation. I wish to see them 
gathered together at Philadelphia in old Independence Hall with its cracked bell. 
I want to go there, if my life is spared, as one John Hancock and one John Adams 
went a hundred years before. I said the other day, and I say now, that Massa- 
chusetts wants to be there, and I venture to promise that Massachusetts will be 
there. I wish to see our young and noble sister States of California, Nevada, and 
those States in prospect, Colorado and Utah, represented there with their untold 
and increasing agricultural products; it will be some satisfaction to gaze upon their 
specimens of gold and silver, so much wanted now, and which we cannot obtain 
for anything we have, it being sent to the mint in England to be coined for nothing 
(while here it costs one-fifth of one per cent.), and somehow we never get it back 
again. I want to see these specimens, if for nothing else on earth then to gaze on 
something that looks like hard money. 

The Chairman. The gentleman's time has expired. 

Mr. Crocker. That cannot be; I have twenty minutes, and I certainly have 
not spoken over ten minutes. 



70 LIFE ^ylND TIMES OF ^^LVAH CROCKETi^ 

Mr. Parker, of Missouri. I think the Chair has made a mistake of ten minutes. 

The Chairman. The Chair is guided by the dial. 

Mr. Crocker. May I go on? 

The Chairman. The gentleman has four minutes more. 

Mr. Crocker. Very well, I must take what the Chairman sees fit to give me, 
but I have spoken only ten minutes. 

The Chairman. The gentleman has spoken a little over fifteen minutes. 

Mr. Crocker. Very well, a word on finance, as to what we shall give. I 
accept the bill as it stands, although I could wish a less sum might be sufiicient. 
I am willing to be taxed for it twice my proportion rather than the tender pride of 
this noble country should be wounded. This is a national matter. 

I leave the guarded message of our worthy President, the circulars of Mr. 
Secretary Fish, whether guarded or unguarded, and say here and now that, when 
a proud nation through her proper authority, the executive, says anything by way 
of commendation of an exposition, it cannot resort to dereliction or subterfuge; 
and this is the impelling motive of the vote I shall cast to-day. 

And now a word about the president and treasurer of the Centennial Com- 
mittee selected to disburse any moneys which Congress or any individual or cor- 
poration may put into their hands. They are an honor to the city of Philadelphia. 
Sir, allow me to say you will have no defalcation there; none of those robberies 
and stealings which have made our ears sting, and tingle for the past few years. 
Every dollar will be vouched, and every cent too, passing through their hands. 
There are, thank God, some in our country that we can turn to yet as His "noblest 
work." 

There has been a great deal said here about sentimentality. I have a word 
to say upon that subject. I remember when a boy that that noble galaxy of stars 
[pointing to the flag over the Speaker's chair] was thought something of. We did 
not call it sentimentality or anything of that kind when old Commodore Hull with 
the Constitution took the Guerriere, the Tava, the Cyane, and the Levant; when 
the frigate United States took the Macedonian, the Wasp took the Frolic, and the 
Hornet, the Penguin; when Commodore Perry won the victory on Lake Erie, and 
Commodore McDonough on Lake Champlain; when the noble Scott, at Lundy's 
Lane, said, "Boys, stand by your flag and your guns"; when all these things took 
place, there was the flag which they looked upon every day and every hour and 
every minute. I do not wonder that some people think it is a sentimentality by 
our suicidal course, from the fact that all the foreign carrying trade now goes 
almost entirely to other nations, and the noble emblem of the Stars and Stripes 
is seldom seen on the Atlantic Ocean. I do not wonder they begin to think it a 
myth. But / do not believe it — not I; nor did old Farragut think so when he 
nailed it to his mast. Nor did the poor wounded fellow whom I took care of after 
the battle of Antietam, with four shots through him, who had held the colors of 
the Massachusetts Thirteenth. In his dying hour he said, "Mr. Crocker, let me 
see my mother, and let me take hold of that old flag which I rushed ahead with in 




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LIFE ^AND TIMES OF ^ALFAH CROCKEl^ 71 

my hands in order to keep my regiment from breaking before tlie brave Confederates, 
for they fought as well as we; let me take hold of it once more, and then let me 
die." That a sentimentality? Pride of country a sentimentality? God forgive 
anybody that makes it anything like a viere sentimentality. I tell you it is reality. 
Sir, I must now close, keeping in view the great national object of this Exposi^ 
tion, fraternity, unity. If we would keep ourselves one people, one body-politic, 
we must know each other better. The stars upon our proud emblem will always 
shed an undivided, ay, an undiminished lustre if we are only true to each other. 
Let us stand by that emblem and by each other, scorning every doubt and all 
treason, protecting the rights of our humblest citizen, and with God Almighty as 
our protector and guardian we will pale in glory all and every other flag of time. 

It is pleasant to recall that the last recorded speech which Mr. Crocker 
made in the House of Representatives, June 5, 1874, was in generous 
defence of an appropriation for the removal of an obstructing bar at the 
mouth of the Mississippi River. He ended with his favorite quotation 
from Bacon, which well expresses the objects of his life's work: "There 
are three things that make a nation great and powerful: a fertile soil, busy 
workshops, and easy communication of men and merchandise from one 
place to another." His public work began with a bold and successful 
attempt to make "easy communication for men and merchandise" of his 
home country, and it was appropriate that his last public utterance should 
seek the same object for a far-distant neighborhood. 

The speech is too characteristic to omit; and with it we close the chapter 
of Alvah Crocker's public service. 

Congressional Record, 43d Congress, ist Session, 1874, Vol. 114, page 
4618, June 5, 1874: 

Mr. Speaker, I rise first in behalf of the National Board of Trade, of which I 
am a member. This Board at their autumn meeting last past, in the city of Chicago, 
discussed fully the question of removing the bar at the mouth of the Mississippi 
River, passing upon it, as imperative and controlling, to be the bounden duty of the 
Government of the United States. This, Mr. Speaker, is one of those self-evident 
propositions which any man of common sense can hardly question. One is lost 
in the contemplation of what the valley is to be with almost half of our population 
now, with twenty-one growing States, seven Territories, and more to come. 

Where is our equilibrium, and where are these States and Territories going to 
land? God in his wisdom has so made this continent, that it is not susceptive of 
division, diverse as our pursuits now are, or may hereafter be. We cannot divide 
our Mississippi or other noble rivers. "Mason and Dixon" is a myth of the past. 
Sir, we are one family, large, I confess, but one family we must be. Our popular 
institutions, ever developing our broad land from shore to shore, from center to 



72 LIFE ^ND TIMES OF ^LVAH CROCKEI^ 

circumference, until at last we are molded together, not only by the ties of interest, 
but consanguinity and fraternity, never to be severed, "one and indivisible." Sir, 
I yesterday heard of a South, sometimes coupled with a West, as if there were no 
East or North. Has the compass lost its attraction to the North pole.? And is 
there no North, no East.'' Have they not also the same vital interests that the 
South, or even the West, has? If you open the Mississippi, open it effectually. 
Are we of the North and East to be shut out, or reap the benefits of its competition 
with the iron rail in cheapening transportation? Heaven forbid, it cannot be. Sir, 
I repeat once more, we are one! If the waters cover the South, is the East, ay, 
is Massachusetts and New England haggard, cold, or stolid, indifferent to her 
calamities? 

Did Boston, the pride of New England, after the loss of one hundred millions 
by fire, hold back? Are we not ready to share what God in his mercy has given 
us? Ay, sir, say not South, or West. So long as our glorious inland seas from the 
cold Superior to Ontario lave our northern shores, or the roar of Niagara's cataract 
is heard to heaven, or the stormy Atlantic billow roars its requiem upon the 
rockbound shores of New England; so long as the electric wire from our shores 
under its bed, three thousand miles away, clicks the business throb of a great 
country, so throbs the heart of our people from every State in our Union. Touch 
Louisiana, or California or any other State with distress and suffering, and you 
touch the East and North. 

But enough of this. I now come to the question of the two systems, each 
advocated so ably, to remove obstacles in developing our commerce. I confess 
to be in doubt. I acknowledge my indebtedness both to the majority and minority 
bills and reports, both aiming at the same grand object. I shall offer no amend- 
ment, but what I would prefer is that some number not exceeding ten should be 
selected from the Mississippi Valley, of its practical and sound men, by the Speaker 
and the Presiding Officer of the Senate, to serve without pay, save expenses, with 
power to call upon Army or civil engineers for any facts they may desire to develop, 
to end of making up a clear judgment, to be rendered on or before the ist of October 
ensuing, and to be conclusive and final, whether by the whole or a majority thereof 
of said commission. 

Now, a word about engineers, of which my friend from Tennessee [Mr. Lewis] 
has said so much. I may state without egotism that I have had something to do 
with that profession, having built a great competing line for Western traffic and 
having charge, from my own State, of the Hoosac tunnel for some two years, before 
it was contracted, and which cost Massachusetts ten millions to reduce, like the 
present proposed improvement, the cost of transportation. Engineers are indis- 
pensable; figures, quantities must be had; but, as a rule, they (the engineers) are 
not economists. They should in this regard be controlled by the practical brains 
of self-made men. Even in the profession itself, some of its strongest jewels, like 
Stephenson, and Loammi Baldwin of Massachusetts, educated themselves. I had 
occasion to test Baldwin's engineering and his levels made twenty years before 



LIFE ^AND TIMES OF ^LVAH CROCKEfB^ 73 

I had anything to do with public works. Sixty miles from Boston and tide-water, 
on the White Mountain ridge, we only varied a single foot from low tide. Now we 
ought to add the judgment of practical men to that of engineers, in a matter of so 
much importance to the country. 

Sir, my friend from Missouri [Mr. Stanard] said yesterday that he hoped to see 
the time when the Mississippi Valley should produce four hundred million bales 
of cotton for export. I go further than that, for I do not wish to be mere "hewers 
of wood and drawers of water" for countries thousands of miles away, furnishing 
simply raw material for them, to be paid back in the fabric made from the same 
material at 100 per cent, profit. Let that great valley keep their cotton; manu- 
facturing it into yarns and cloth, for exportation, and for home consumption, and 
not export the raw cotton. The Mississippi Valley ought to do their own manu- 
facturing at home, dike their own river as it should be done, and the happy millions 
that can be sustained on that rich delta cannot now be computed. 

Sir, we have heard this very week much of Mormondom, but if we would take 
a few lessons on political economy from Brigham Young and his associates, who 
have made a wilderness of sagebrush to blossom like the rose, who have made a 
wealthy community in twenty-five years, of barefooted men and women, by supply- 
ing the wants of their people at home — I say, sir, if we made our rivers and thorough- 
fares what they should be for cheap transportation, our manufacturing industries 
what they should be likewise, we should not now be crying after specie, of which 
we produce some hundred millions of dollars annually, or what is stranger still, 
crying from day to day after bad money. Lord Bacon truly says: "There are 
three things that make a nation great and powerful: a fertile soil, busy workshops, 
and easy communication of men and merchandise from one place to another." 

When in December, 1874, Alvah Crocker bade adieu to his colleagues 
in Washington, he left them in the best of spirits at the prospect of a vaca- 
tion in his beloved Fitchburg. He spoke frequently "of a vigor and free- 
dom not enjoyed for many years." Though seventy-four years of age, he 
was "possessed of such a strong and powerful frame and constitution of 
body," that it seemed probable that he might be destined to enjoy many 
more years of useful service. On the journey northward into the much 
colder climate of New England he contracted a cold which soon turned 
into pneumonia, and, after being confined to his house but a day, passed ' 
suddenly away at eleven o'clock Saturday evening, the 26th of December.^ ^ {' *•" ^"l 

Fitchburg was shocked by the suddenness and overwhelmed by the 
magnitude of its loss. To many a soul it came as a personal bereavement, 
for Alvah Crocker was something more intimate to his neighbors than a 
mere man of great prominence and success. He had been a generous 
giver, and "especially delighted in aiding young men of limited means. 
The needy never turned empty from his door. No portion of that vast 



74 LIFE ^ND TIMES OF ^ALVAH CROCKEB^ 

concourse of people who crowded the funeral procession testified their 
bereavement more sincerely than the humble and dependent who had been 
recipients of his bounty." He was survived by his wife, Minerva Gush- 
ing, whom he had married October 20, 1872, and who died in the old home- 
stead at Fitchburg in 1921. 

In retrospect we can scarcely regret that death's hand fell upon him 
at the end of a period of long-sustained activity, as if to say: "Well done, 
good and faithful servant. You have accomplished full more than your 
share, and are to be spared the pain of an old age conscious of declining 
powers." 

The tributes of the time were generous, but well deserved. As we 
review them we cannot feel that those who paid them indulged in any 
appraisals which time has not sustained. 

As our minds revert to the picture of a young barefooted country boy 
of eleven years trudging day after day to the little paper mill in Leominster, 
we think of his frugal home life, its deeply religious atmosphere, the half- 
dozen books, and its scanty comforts; and then that single hard-earned 
term at Groton Academy, the culmination of the formative period of his 
life. The issues of this environment as exemplified in the career of Alvah 
Crocker seem no less remarkable than those of a Jacob Riis or an Edward 
Bok. At the same time, we may reflect that this life was no less excep- 
tional for those times than for ours, and that a genius for industry is as 
much a gift as a genius for art. 

We may rejoice that the commonwealth for which he labored has so 
much more than it had a century ago to offer to its native sons and its 
emigrant wards. Not less but more than Alvah Crocker should we "have 
faith in Massachusetts." 




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APPENDIX 



CROCKER, BURBANK & CO., 1874-1923 

At the time of Hon. Alvah Crocker's death, in 1874, Crocker, Burbank & Co.'s 
plant consisted of seven mills, with a total daily product of seventeen tons. On 
January i, 1923, this company had nineteen paper machines, with a total daily 
capacity of 300 tons. 

There have been many individuals responsible for the continued success of the 
company founded originally by Alvah Crocker, most of whom have been direct 
descendants either of him or of his immediate relatives. 

In 1874, besides Hon. Alvah Crocker, there were actively engaged in the business 
George F. Fay, Samuel E. Crocker and Charles T. Crocker. 

The following descendants and relatives of Alvah Crocker have since that 
time been actively engaged in the business: 



Edward S. Crocker . . 1878 to 1909 
George H. Crocker . . 1879 to 1909 
Alvah Crocker .... 1880 to present 
Charles T. Crocker, Jr. 1892 to present 
Samuel E. M. Crocker . 1903 to 1922 
Alvah Crocker, Jr. . . 1904 to 1909 



Bartow Crocker 
Douglas Crocker . 
Alfred M. Crocker 
BicELOW Crocker . 
C. T. Crocker, 3d . 
Weyman S. Crocker 



1909 to present 

1909 to present 

1910 to 191 1 
1912 to present 
1916 to present 
1919 to present 



ADDRESSES ON THE DEATH OF HON. ALVAH CROCKER 



Proceedings in the House of Representatives. 
Massachusetts: 



Address of Mr. Dawes, of 



Mr. Speaker: I desire to interrupt the ordinary current of business in this 
House that the attention of its members may be directed for a few moments to an 
event full of admonition, and one which awaits us all. It becomes my painful 
duty to announce to the House the death of one of its members, Hon. Alvah Crocker, 
a Representative from the tenth congressional district of Massachusetts, who died 
at his home in Fitchburg, in that State, after a brief illness, on Saturday, the 26th 
day of December last. He separated from his colleagues and associates here at 
the commencement of the holiday recess in unusual health and spirits, speaking 
frequently of a vigor and freedom from illness not enjoyed for many years. His 
journey northward to his home in the rigor of December brought upon him a severe 
cold and afterward congestion of the lungs, which confined him to his house on 
Friday and terminated fatally on Saturday evening. He sank rapidly in the last 
few hours of his illness, and passed quietly away at eleven o'clock in the hope of a 
glorious immortality. 



'jd LIFE ^AND TIMES OF zALVJH CROCKER 

Mr. Crocker was born in Leominster, in our State, on the 14th day of October, 
1801, and had therefore at the time of his death just entered the seventy-fourth 
year of his age. His parents were poor, and without the means of rendering him 
any assistance in preparation for after life, and hardly more than a maintenance 
from his earliest years, and he became a factory operative when only eight years 
of age. The first and almost the only fifty dollars expended on his education was 
earned by him in night-work in the factory at four cents an hour, and while it 
lasted he was a pupil at Groton Academy. Whatever he could earn in this way 
was devoted by him to fitting himself for a broad and practical usefulness in after 
life. In fact, almost his entire education was acquired in that broader field of 
practical life where necessity is the teacher and experience the guide. 

In his early manhood he entered as a partner with others into a responsible 
business connection as a manufacturer of paper, in which pursuit he continued 
with marked and unbroken success till his death. Though largely and devotedly 
engaged in this the special calling of his life, he found time to undertake and carry 
out to successful results other enterprises, some of them of vast public concern, 
and all of them of great usefulness and influence in promoting the healthy and 
permanent growth of the community in which he lived, bringing to himself at the 
same time large returns and ultimately great wealth. 

Embarking with characteristic zeal and energy in the earliest railroad enter- 
prises in Northern Massachusetts, if not himself its projector, at a time when 
railroads were as yet an untested experiment, he lived to see that line traverse the 
entire State and connect its tide-waters with the Hudson and the western lakes 
by one of the most marvelous works of internal improvements in modern times, 
and all pushed to completion by an energy and forecast inspired by him more than 
by any other. Under the same influences his own town has grown from an unimpor- 
tant village of a few hundred inhabitants to a flourishing and prosperous city of 
large and increasing wealth and importance in the Commonwealth. It to-day 
mourns the loss of a citizen constantly contributing by a ceaseless activity singularly 
well directed to its improvement and prosperity, to the comfort and character 
and growth of its people. 

Nor were these characteristics of Mr. Crocker's life confined in their results 
to the city of his residence, but were felt in stimulating the development of a great 
variety of industrial interests and the consequent increase of prosperity and wealth 
in other parts of the State. A beautiful manufacturing town has sprung up within 
a few years on the banks of the Connecticut, increasing rapidly in population and 
wealth, and destined soon to rank among our cities, which owes its very existence 
to the indomitable energy and tireless eS'orts of Mr. Crocker. 

The implicit confidence of his fellow-citizens in his spotless integrity as well as 
sound judgment and unusual forecast, called him most frequently to positions 
of very delicate trust and of great responsibility, which he held from his earliest 
manhood to the day of his death. His decease has made vacant positions in the 
board of direction of institutions and associations for purposes of business and 



LIFE ^ND TIMES OF ^LVAH CROCKETi^ 77 

public and private trusts as well as for objects of benevolent and religious work 
greater in number and importance than would be caused by the death of almost 
any other citizen of the Commonwealth. 

Mr. Crocker was three times a member of the house and twice a senator in the 
Massachusetts Legislature. On the 2d day of January, 1872, he was elected to the 
Forty-second Congress to fill a vacancy caused by the resignation of Governor 
Washburn. His election took place while he was absent from the country with 
Mrs. Crocker, whose failing health had taken him abroad many months previous 
to the existence of the vacancy. He had no knowledge of either nomination or 
election till his return after both had occurred. Mrs. Crocker's protracted sickness 
and death detained him for some time from his seat. He was re-elected to the 
Forty-third Congress by a large majority, but declined a re-election to the Forty- 
fourth. 

Mr. Crocker was in politics a Whig, and, after that party, a Republican. Bring- 
ing to the discharge of every political duty growing out of those relations the same 
enthusiastic zeal which characterized his every undertaking, he was nevertheless no 
partisan, and always followed his convictions rather than his party. He came 
into Congress late in life, and was not permitted to remain long enough in his 
work here to leave that personal and permanent impression upon the administrative 
policy or legislation of the country which experience often brings to the share of 
others. But he was not idle here. Indeed, he could not be idle anywhere. In the 
committee-room, as well as upon the floor of the House, and always in consultation, 
his practical knowledge and wise counsel were invaluable, while his genial disposition 
and flow of conversation made him a general favorite. It was truthfully said of 
him that "he went directly at a thing in Congress as he would in his own business 
affairs, and in an earnest, homely way they were little accustomed to witness." 

Mr. Crocker was a remarkable man in all the variety of pursuits in life into 
which his tireless spirit and iron will led him to embark. A larger measure of 
success and a more widespread influence and abiding impression were attendant 
upon his career in life than mark the path of most of his contemporaries. The 
tendency of his whole life-work was for good. He was a generous giver, and espe- 
cially delighted in aiding young men of limited means. The needy never turned 
empty from his door. No portion of that vast concourse of people who crowded 
the funeral procession testified their bereavement more sincerely than the humble 
and dependent who had been recipients of his bounty. He was a religious man, 
and died in the faith of the Protestant Episcopal Church, of which he was an officer 
at the time of his death. 

Mr. Crocker had been married three times, and left two children and a widow 
stricken by this bereavement, yet sustained by that faith which assures them 
that their loss is his gain. 

Mr. Speaker, the shafts are falling thick and fast among us. Massachusetts 
is called upon by this dispensation, for the third time during this Congress, to 
mourn the loss of one from the number of those she has commissioned for the 



78 LIFE ^AND TIMES OF ^LVAH CROCKER^ 

public service in these Halls. And even now, before these ceremonies are concluded, 
a fourth is added to the list of her dead. The funeral procession has but just borne 
another of her delegation from the scenes of his labor here. Our Commonwealth 
is most sensible of how great is that loss. She bows her head in submission and 
testifies her grief at the tomb of her faithful public servants. 
I offer the following resolutions: 

Resolved, That this House has heard with deep regret the death of Hon. Alvah 
Crocker, late a member of this House from the State of Massachusetts. 

Resolved, That as a testimony of respect to the memory of the deceased the 
officers and members of this House will wear the usual badge of mourning for the 
space of thirty days. 

Resolved, That a copy of these resolutions be transmitted by the Clerk to the 
family of the deceased. 

Address of Mr. Butler of Massachusetts: 

Mr. Speaker: The most gracious boon conferred by a merciful Providence 
upon any man is that he may not know the hour or manner of his death. When 
it comes to him in the full vigor of activity, especially after long, long years of a 
well-spent life, as a relief from all sorrow and care, with a humble Christian hope 
of a future and better life to come, such a departure calls neither for tears nor 
mourning in his behalf whose life has been so blessed by its ending. Yet it is well 
to pause amid the contests of life, its struggles and business, to give thought to the 
conduct and example of the departed, to contemplate all that is beautiful and 
good in his character, and to pay some tribute to his virtues, and thus aid to keep 
green his memory. 

By the death of Alvah Crocker, a member from Massachusetts in this House 
of Representatives, our Commonwealth has been called a second time to mourn 
for one of her chosen men; and while he had not, from long services in the councils 
of the nation, high attributes of eloquence and learning, attained that exalted 
place in the affection and reverence of his countrymen that was held by the great 
statesman of our State whose death has within a twelve-month called for our 
deepest sorrow, yet in another and perhaps no less useful sphere Mr. Crocker has 
«o well performed his part in life, and has left for the contemplation and imitation 
of the youth of the country a career no less honorable, and in its results to man- 
kind quite as practical and beneficent. 

From humble life, without the advantages of that early training and cultivation 
which the universities may give, brought up by the rugged hand of poverty, he 
early distinguished himself as a thorough man of affairs, whose foresight in planning, 
whose skill and energy in executing many most important undertakings for the 
welfare of his fellow-citizens and the prosperity of his State, early gave him an 
enviable reputation in a community where all the faculties of mind were taxed to 
the utmost in the most active and complicated duties of life. 

Mr. Crocker's character and success in life were indeed the very outgrowth of 



LIFE ^ND TIMES OF ^LVAH CROCKETR^ 79 

the industrial pursuits of the people of Massachusetts. At an almost infantile 
age an operative in a manufacturing establishment, thence steadily rising step by 
step, overseer, superintendent, owner, acquitting himself so well in all that each 
step was but the round of the ladder by which he climbed from honorable penury 
to competence and the like honorable wealth. Among the very first of the far- 
seeing men of his State, with business sagacity that never faltered, he foresaw the 
effect which the then young system of railroading must have upon the prosperity 
of his native State, and allied himself very early in one of the most considerable 
railroad enterprises by which Boston was ultimately to be connected with the 
western part of New England, the provinces, the Canadas, and the great lakes. 
His sagacity and business qualities were at once recognized by his associates in 
the enterprise, so that he was early made president of the Fitchburg Railroad, 
planned in the beginning to connect his native town and the town of his adoption 
with Boston, but afterwards to be extended so as to become a portion of the rail- 
road system that connects the tide-waters of Boston Harbor with the great lakes 
and the granaries of the West. 

Mr. Crocker early saw, almost as by intuition, what came to others only by slow 
teachings of experience, the impossibility of profitably and effectively carrying 
on very extensive mercantile traffic over railroads encumbered by curves and heavy 
gradients, and therefore nearly a quarter of a century ago became the ardent 
advocate and untiring promoter of the most splendid engineering achievement of 
the age, the opening of a railroad track through the Hoosac Mountain by a tunnel 
sufficient for a double-track road of quite five miles in extent, of which work the 
State gave him charge as its commissioner, and which he lived only long enough 
to see completed. 

While possessing qualities of the most positive character, yet his nature was so 
kindly, his disposition so courteous, his mind so fair, and his conscience so just, 
that he had fewer collisions in the many and diverse kinds of business in which 
he took most active part than fall to the lot of the most favored few. With such 
attributes, sustained by the most sturdy and vigorous physical health, which 
enabled him to carry forward with the greatest vigor all that he undertook, it was 
not singular that he early commanded the attention of his fellow-citizens as one 
well fitted for public service, and was by them chosen to represent their interests 
in public affairs; so that nearly forty years ago he was elected the representative of 
what is now the city of Fitchburg to the legislature of Massachusetts, which he 
filled during several terms, and was afterward later in life elected to the Senate of 
the State for two successive periods; in all which service he gained an enviable 
distinction and influence; never failing to command the suffrages of his fellow- 
citizens where he was offered as a candidate for their votes; so that he was elected 
twice to his seat in this House in the Forty-second and Forty-third Congresses, in 
which last we now turn aside from public affairs to mourn his loss as a fellow- 
member but yesterday acting with us in the business of the hour. 

An ardent, patriotic friend of the Union, on the breaking out of the war, Mr. 



8o LIFE <^ND TIMES OF ^LVAH CROCKET^ 

Crocker took the most active and intense interest in all measures for the suppres- 
sion of the rebelHon. Too far advanced in years to take part in arms, he exerted 
himself to send forward troops, and while the war was waging he made a voyage 
to England, and spent very considerable time in impressing upon the manufacturers 
of England the condition of our country and the necessity that there should be a 
community of interest and thought and mutual fellowship between those classes 
in both countries that represent the industries of the people. When the war was 
over, not unmindful of those who had gone forth at his solicitation to battle for 
the country and laid down their lives in its service on the battle-field, he exerted 
himself with his accustomed power and vigor, contributing thereto largely of his 
own means to provide that the fallen heroes of his city should have one of the most 
elaborate and costly of the many monuments erected to the memory of those who 
fell in battle in that war, and fortunately lived long enough to see it completed, 
having made the address at its dedication but a few months before his decease. 

Alvah Crocker died at the age of upward of seventy-three years, but was pos- 
sessed of such a strong and powerful frame and constitution of body, that it seemed 
probable but for the accidental contracting of the disease from which he died, 
he might have seen many more years of useful service to his country and his kind. 

Such is the faint outline of the record of a life not so brilliant indeed as some 
that flash their light across the age in which they live, but so useful, so practical, 
so devoted to everything that could aid, prosper, and foster all the best interests 
of the community in which he lived, that it is more than doubted whether any better 
model of a life well spent and duty well done can be held up for the closest imita- 
tion of those who may come after him. 

The resolutions submitted by Mr. Dawes were then unanimously adopted. 



PROCEEDINGS IN THE SENATE 

Address of Mr. Washburn of Massachusetts: 

I rise to ask for the reading of the resolutions from the House of Representa- 
tives in regard to my late colleague Hon. Alvah Crocker, which I believe are on 
the table. 

The Vice-President. The resolutions will be read. 

The Secretary read as follows: 

In the House of Representatives, 
February 20, 1875. 

Resolved, That this House has heard with deep regret of the death of Hon. 
Alvah Crocker, late a member of this House from the State of Massachusetts. 

Resolved, That as a testimony of respect to the memory of the deceased, the 
officers and members of this House will wear the usual badge of mourning for the 
space of thirty days. 



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MANUSCRIPT LiaTER OF AIAAII CROCKKR 

On January 13, 1873, he presented this resignation as President and Director of the 
Rollstone National Bank. 



LIFE <lAND times OF zALFAH CROCKER 8i 

Resolved, That a copy of these resolutions be transmitted by the Clerk to the 
family of the deceased. 

I have presented the resolutions which have been read with feelings of peculiar 
sadness. Never before has our State, never before has any State since the for- 
mation of the Government been called to mourn the loss of so large a percentage 
of its delegation during a given Congress. Four during the term, three in the 
past year, nearly one-third of our delegation, have fallen in the ranks. Death 
came so sudden and unexpected upon each one that their most intimate friends 
hardly realize that they had withdrawn from their daily official labors. Surely 
the reaper has thrust his sickle into our ranks with no sparing hand. 

During the last session Mr. Crocker being confined to his room for a long time by 
severe sickness, none of us would have been surprised at the news of his death at 
any moment. But soon after his return home in the summer he began to improve 
and recovered his usual strength and vigor, so that when he returned to his 
official duties at the commencement of the present session he had the appearance 
of a strong, healthy man. A few days previous to our late recess he left for home 
to spend the holidays with the members of his family and near relatives of his own 
house. When he reached home he had a slight cold, but not sufficient to cause 
the least alarm. He applied himself from day to day to the inspection of his 
business affairs till Christmas, when he found himself too unwell to participate 
in the festivities of the day. It was not, however, until Saturday evening that he 
felt the necessity of medical attendance. His family physician was summoned, 
and upon examination pronounced the disease to be congestion of the lungs, not 
of such a nature, however, as to cause alarm. But he gradually failed during 
the day, and, finally, at eleven o'clock in the evening, died while sitting in his chair. 
Thus he passed over the river before many beyond his own family circle knew of 
his sickness. 

Mr. Crocker was born in Leominster, Mass., October 14, 1801, and consequently 
was seventy-three years of age at the time of his death. His father, a hard-work- 
ing, energetic man, was a paper manufacturer. He placed his son Alvah in the 
mill to learn the trade when but eight years of age. The boy was anxious to secure 
for himself better educational advantages than could be obtained at that time in 
our public schools. By practicing the most rigid economy he was enabled to 
acquire an academical education. 

When twenty-two years of age he movxd to the neighboring town of Fitchburg, 
and commenced the manufacture of paper for himself. Beginning with nothing 
but an inheritance of poverty and toil, he struggled along against untold difficulties 
and with varied success. With means so very limited he was obliged to commence 
in a small way, but gradually extended his business as he was able until he became 
the important proprietor of six or eight large establishments, and one of the most 
extensive and most successful paper manufacturers in the country. 

But his time and energies were by no means confined to the prosecution of his 
own business. He was a man of liberal views and large public spirit; he took 



82 LIFE ^ND TIMES OF ^LVAH CROCKETi^ 

special interest in tlie prosperity and growtii of the town in which he lived. He 
did more than any other inhabitant to develop its resources; he devoted not only 
his time but most liberally his means to this end. From a small town of some two 
thousand inhabitants when he commenced business it has grown to be one of the 
most beautiful thrifty cities in the State, with a population of over fifteen thou- 
sand. The variety of its industries, the busy hum of its machinery, its railroad 
facilities quickening into renewed intensity the exchanges of business and the 
intercourse of men, all combine to make it one of the most attractive municipali- 
ties in the State. Mr. Crocker desired to develop and utilize every waterfall in 
the town. To this end he secured new and unexpected means of transportation 
to, and communication with, every section of the State. Not that his vision was 
narrowed and circumscribed within the limits of his own town. 

When the system of railroads had hardly been commenced, when but few 
miles had been built in the country, when most business men refused to risk their 
capital in such visionary enterprises, Mr. Crocker conceived the idea of construct- 
ing a railroad from his town to Boston, in order that the northern part of the 
State might have free and easy access to the seaboard. He labored long and 
earnestly to secure a charter for this road. He met with considerable opposition 
not only from many of the most influential men in the eastern part of the State, 
but also from those who resided along the line of the route. It was thought that 
the scheme would end in utter failure. But Mr. Crocker knew no defeat, but, 
when rejected by one legislature, applied to another until he obtained his charter. 
Then, with unexampled energy and faith, he pushed forward the enterprise to a 
most speedy completion. In March, 1845, he rode in triumph into Fitchburg 
upon the first locomotive that ever entered the town. 

But this was but the commencement of the great work he had in mind. His 
plan embraced a complete and extended railway system for the northern part of 
the State. Hence he proceeded at once to secure a charter for the Vermont and 
Massachusetts Railroad which would extend the line from Fitchburg to the western 
part of the State, thence into the State of Vermont. He was more largely instru- 
mental in the construction of this road also than any other person. But he well 
knew that these roads would be of little benefit to any except those who resided 
in their immediate vicinity unless a connection could be made with the West. 
Hence his next step was to secure a charter for a road from the Vermont and Massa- 
chusetts road through the Hoosac Mountain. This was no ordinary task. The 
road would be very expensive and most difficult to construct. It required the 
construction of a tunnel through the mountain five miles in length. Such were 
the difficulties to be overcome, so great the expenditures to be made, that few 
men had faith to believe that the undertaking would ever be successful. But 
from first to last Mr. Crocker never hesitated or doubted. He lived to see his 
predictions for twenty-five years verified, and the tunnel, the object of his dreams 
by night and of his toil by day, completed. 

Some years ago his attention was called to the most extensive water-power 



LIFE ^AND TIMES OF ^LVAH CROCKETR^ 83 

in the State, at Turners Falls, on the Connecticut River, which had never been 
improved. He concluded to devote his energies and means to its development. 
A company was organized, of which he was the president and the leading spirit. 
The power and the territory adjacent were purchased, a dam and canal constructed, 
machine-shops, paper-mills, and extensive factories erected, and the region which 
yesterday was a desolate, barren waste has to-day become a beautiful flourishing 
town with its thousands of inhabitants. The beautiful churches, school-houses, 
and public and private structures of every variety attract the attention and call 
forth the admiration of the beholder. A national bank of discount and a savings 
institution each bear his name, and he was the president of each. Turners Falls 
stands to-day with its wonderful improvements as a monument to the energy and 
foresight of Mr. Crocker. 

Mr. Crocker served three times in the lower and two in the upper house of the 
Massachusetts legislature with credit to himself and honor to his constituents. 
In 1 871 he visited Europe on account of the sickness of his wife, and during his 
absence was elected to the Forty-second Congress, to fill the vacancy caused by 
my resignation. He was re-elected to the Forty-third Congress by 14,919 votes 
against 4,588 for the democratic candidate. He declined to be a candidate at the 
last election. When he entered upon his duties here he was over seventy years of 
age, and much of the time his health was so impaired that it was with difficulty that 
he attended to his official duties. In public as in private life he was strictly honest. 
He discharged all his duties in a most conscientious manner. No jobbery or corrup- 
tion was ever traced to his door; but his entire record stands above suspicion. 

Of his private life, of his genial and liberal hospitality, of the strength and 
warmth of his friendship, there is no time or need of reference on this occasion. 
Beyond the immediate circle of his friends, he will be specially mourned by the 
large company of his business associates among whom the greater part of his daily 
life has been passed, by the thousands of employees who were more or less 
dependent upon him for their daily sustenance, and by that untold number who 
have been the recipients for many long years of his charities. 

Mr. Crocker was not without his faults. Like most men he made his mistakes 
and had his weaknesses. But on such an occasion as this we may well forget 
these. If we estimate his worth by what he has accomplished for the community 
in which he lived, for the section of the State in which he resided, few men will 
bear comparison with him. May it be ours to gather up and cherish the memory 
of his many virtues. 

Mr. President, I send to the desk resolutions which I offer for the considera- 
tion of the Senate. 

The Vice-President. The resolutions will be read. 

The Secretary read as follows: 

Resolved, That the Senate has received with deep sensibility the announcenient 
of the death of Hon. Alvah Crocker, late a member of the House of Representatives 
from the State of Massachusetts. 



84 LIFE ^ND TIMES OF ^LFJH CROCKE%^ 

Resolved, That as a mark of respect for the memory of Mr. Crocker, the members 
of the Senate will wear the usual badge of mourning for thirty days. 

Resolved, That a copy of these resolutions be transmitted by the Secretary of 
the Senate to the family of the deceased. 

The resolutions were adopted unanimously. 

Address of Mr. Wadleigh of New Hampshire: 

Mr. President: A residence of some years near the home of Alvah Crocker and 
a knowledge of his reputation there lead me to pay a brief tribute to his memory. 

His reputation was not won in political warfare nor in public life. Five years 
in the Massachusetts Legislature and two in the national House of Representatives 
after the age of three-score and ten were not sufficient for that. Yet he always 
manifested good sense, sincerity, praiseworthy fidelity to the interests of his con- 
stituents, and enlarged patriotism. 

But his reputation was won in the course of a long and successful business 
career. Beginning life in obscurity and poverty, at the early age of eight years 
he was a factory operative. But his energy and ability conquered adverse circum- 
stances. He secured an education which furnished a foundation for business 
success, and achieved a large fortune. That fortune was not used mainly for his 
personal advantage; it was used to forward and complete enterprises which have 
largely contributed to the growth and prosperity of Northern Massachusetts. The 
people whose welfare he had promoted manifested their respect for him by sending 
him to represent them in Congress when at the advanced age of seventy-one years 
by an overwhelming majority. 

What can be said of him in these Halls will do comparatively little to perpetuate 
his memory. He has a nobler and more enduring monument than speech can 
rear. In Worcester County, upon the rocky banks of a flashing river hurrying 
swiftly to the sea, stands one of the most beautiful and thriving cities of New 
England, which within a few years has been created and which owes very much 
of what it is to the business ability and public spirit of Alvah Crocker. Till that 
city perishes will his memory be preserved as one of its founders. 

LETTER TO THE HON. GEORGE EVANS 

Alvah Crocker's grasp of the entire subject of transportation, his 
appreciation of its urgent necessity for the growth of the nation, and his 
intimate and technical knowledge of the subject are strikingly illustrated 
in his letter to the Hon. George Evans upon the remission of duty on 
railway iron. All the more interesting is this letter in view of the fact that 
Mr. Crocker was a protectionist in general, but he was never so partisan 
as to be blind to conditions that should be considered exceptional in nature 
and in treatment. 



LIFE <^NB TIMES OF ^LVAH CROCKE%^_ 85 

Washington, D.C, March 1, 1844 
To the Hon. George Evans, 

Chairman of the Committee of Finance in Senate U.S. 

Sir: I notice that you have reported a bill in the Senate, which, if adopted 
by Congress, will extend the time of imposition of duties upon railway iron in certain 
cases. As this question is vitally important to the productive interests of this 
country, allow me to present to you a few of the many reasons, both of a general 
and special character, which seem to me applicable to the question, though you 
are now doubtless possessed of better testimony in the premises than I am able to 
set forth. 

The article of railway iron was from July, 1832, to March, 1843, practically, 
duty free. The United States Government, acting upon the principle that cheap 
and rapid intercourse conduce to national and individual prosperity, adopted, 
for that period, a policy which induced and enabled the wealthiest sections of 
country, like Massachusetts for instance, to nearly perfect a system of railways, 
which afford them the means of locomotion and transportation, to points of pro- 
duction and points of consumption, for less than one-half that it costs other sections, 
which, by reason of a more sparse population and more limited means, have not 
yet constructed such roads. I am aware that the reply will be, that railway iron 
can now be purchased as cheap (duty added) as when the earliest railways were 
built; but, independent of the fact of the increased value of money, those first 
finished enjoyed more than an equivalent for any present reduction of price, in 
the article of iron, by their novelty, monopoly of travel, and by increasing the 
agricultural, and calling into existence the various manufacturing pursuits, which, 
by the freights created, have rendered such lines profitable — like the Worcester,* 
the Lowell, and Nashua railroads in Massachusetts. Take, if you please, a few 
simple, plain reasons, which show practically their influence. The farmer at 
Rockford (Illinois) pays $20 per ton for the transportation of his wheat to Chicago, 
some 80 miles; at Woodstock, or Rutland, (Vermont) $20 per ton for the transporta- 
tion of his butter, cheese, and pork, to Boston, 150 miles, and the same for his 
return articles of consumption. This is actually the price from those points by 
team or horse power. Now, the farmer at Albany, (N.Y.) pays $5 per ton for his 
pork to Boston, 200 miles; and the same price for his imports by cars upon the 
Western railroad. Gypsum or plaster is, you are aware, much used for many 
soils. The farmer at Nashua, (N.H.) pays, delivered from the railroad, (41 miles) 
$5 per ton, at Fitchburg, (Mass.) about the same distance, he pays (by team) 
$10 per ton. The cotton manufacturer at Nashua, with 4,000 spindles, makes 

*The market man for Westborough, on this railroad, paid to the inhabitants of that town $50,000 
the last year for milk, vegetables, &c., sold at Boston. The eastern division of the New York and 
Erie railway, during the six months prior to September 30, 1843, delivered 300,000 quarts of milk at 
New York, reducing the price from 6 to 4 cents the quart at an annual saving to that city of ?l2O,0O0. — 
See Superintendent's report. 



86 LIFE ^ND TIMES OF ^LVAH CROCKE%^ 

7,500 pounds of cloth per week; and, saying nothing of the requisite excess of at 
least iyi per cent, in the raw material, you have 7^ tons per week import, and 
export, or 391 — say 400 tons per annum, at a cost of $2 per ton by railway, is $800. 
The Fitchburg cotton manufacturer pays $7 per ton, by team, or $2,800 — leaving 
$2,000 balance in favor of the Nashua manufacturer, to which you may safely 
add another $1,000 for facility of communication, and saving in the transporta- 
tion of his starch, flour for sizing, coal and bread stuffs. 

The illustrations above cited will more or less apply to all our widely extended 
country, away from water communication, where steam and horse power are put 
in competition. It is submitted, therefore, whether the imposition of this duty, 
is now just to the different sections of the country? — to the younger and less wealthy 
States? — or accords with the genius and spirit of our constitution and laws. 

Again: It will not be denied that railroads (though in infancy) have been con- 
tributors to national wealth, by increasing home production, mail facilities, de- 
veloping new resources, enhancing in value, as they bring nearer to market, the 
public lands; that they were beginning, and, if persisted in, will ultimately consoli- 
date and unite, by one vast system of inter-communication, this whole country.* 
How can the Government be justified in imposing an excessive, if not prohibitory 
duty, upon the material, when said duty arrests the completion of the feeble 
roads, commenced under an implied guarantee of eleven years policy, and thereby 
sacrificing the property of individuals and States, by depriving them of the power 
to finish them? Let it answer this question to Michigan, who is now knocking 
at its doors for relief; to Georgia, or any State, or individual company interested. 
I am aware, that it will be said that duties reduce the prices. This may be true, 
where our manufacturers come in competition with the foreign; and it would 
undoubtedly be true, that our high duty on railway iron would reduce the price 
of that article in England, if the United States were the leading market. But, 
in this case, their leading foreign market is upon the continent of Europe — in 
France, Belgium, Germany, and Russia. While by their redundancy of capital, 
the amount invested in the manufacture of this species of iron is very great; the 
competition, as the writer knows from actual experience, for the smallest orders, 
is strong; and with their present capacity for supply, it can hardly be supposed 
that any demand from this country can permanently affect the price. 

Again. No railways are known to have been commenced since the passage 
of this tariff. Those now projected await the action of Congress upon this ques- 
tion, and I would now submit, if it be not due to the great iron interest of the State 
of Pennsylvania, that this article should be free, and for the following reasons: 

1st. It gives vitality to the lines now projected, and many others, which 

'Passengers, during the past summer, have been conveyed from Buffalo to New York, by railroad 
and steamboat, 510 miles in 37 hours, for ? 11.50. And by means of the Albany and Boston road, from 
Buffalo to Boston, 560 miles in 36 hours, for $15. Should Congress remit the duty so as to enable the 
New York and Erie railroad to be completed, the passage from Lake Erie to New York, 451 53/100 
miles, would be performed in 26 hours, at a probable fare of ^10. 



LIFE ^ND TIMES OF ^LVAH CROCKETi^ 87 

immediately created a demand for vast quantities of iron of better qualities and 
prices,* affording profits to the maker above the heavy cost of transportation. 
In the shape of iron, suitable for cotton, woollen and other machinery, and for 
railroad work, for engines, cast iron wheels, spikes, chairs, &c. Subjoined are 
some of the items of cost for construction of a railroad which will show how large 
a portion of the expense is in the above items, copied from the report of the Western 
Railroad to the Legislature of Massachusetts, for 1842, for 117 804/1000 miles 
of said road, to wit: 

Graduation and road bed $2,289,371.91 

(In this work, the amount of iron used in the shape of dirt cars, 

drills, iron bars, and pick axes, shovels, &c. is great) 

Bridging and masonry 977,961.74 

(Great amounts of iron for trussing bolts, sledge hammers, chairs, 

&c.) 

Depot buildings, aqueducts, &c 188,660.57 

(Large iron rods for supporting roof, and strengthening the timber 

and iron pipe) 

Engineer department, instruments 190,248.86 

Engines and cars, for 156 miles of road 642,547.04 

The detail of the last item is as follows: 

29 engines, iron or steel (save the boiler lining) 950,000 lbs. 

29 tenders, nearly all iron, say of do. 10,000 X (1,500 

wrought iron) 290,000 lbs. 

f 5,500 wheels and boxes "1 
25 passenger cars (64 seat) ] 1,000 wr't iron axles, &c. [ . . 8,000 x 200,000 lbs. 

[750 wrought iron J 

u » / 2,7sO wheels and boxes 1 „„„ , „„„ ,, 

II passenger cars, short { ^^^^..^^g^t axles J • • • • 4,ooo x 44,000 lbs. 

_-:^ I x • T_.. f 1,200 wrought iron and steel 1 /r _ . _o lu 

266 long freight cars {^;^^^^^^Jgj^^^^,^^_^^) . . 6,700 x 1,782,200 lbs. 

!6oo wrought iron and steel 1 
2,500 castings >. . . . 3,600 x 612,000 lbs. 
500 wr't iron, for axles &c. J 

Here you have of domestic iron, besides turn-tables, 

switches, &c 3,878,000 lbs. 

'One of the intelligent representatives of that State assured me that he was obtaining $80 per 
ton for iron, which he sells at Pawtucket, Hartford, and Boston. Now the cost of railway iron, duty 
added, will not exceed ^54 per ton while the investment is much heavier to make it to advantage. It 
will be perceived at once, as railroads are what build up the manufacturing interest, how deep his in- 
terest is in this question. It is the machinist at Pawtucket and. Lowell, who can afford great prices, 
for he will have good iron, of toughness and strength. 



88 LIFE ^AND TIMES OF ^LVAH CROCKET^ 

The weight of chairs for loo miles, 10,000 lbs. to the mile, is 1,000,000 lbs. 
The weight of spikes for 100 miles, 4,575 lbs. to the mile, is 457,500 lbs. 

9,000 tons of the Trail, 52 to 56 lbs. to the linear yard, for 100 miles, 

duty $25 per ton, is $225,000.00 

Cost at Cardiff, in Wales, as paid by the Fitchburg Company, for 

100 miles, $24 per ton, is $216,000.00 

It should be also borne in mind, that, while the iron rails suffer but little by 
abrasion, the cars and engines are constantly wearing out, and substituted by new 
ones, while an enormous quantity of iron is used in repairs, which upon the Western 
Railroad alone, for the engines, which are all iron or steel, in 1842, cost $38,611.07. 
And the Pennsylvania coal (for Crab engines, made by Thomas Winans of Balti- 
more, who now has a contract with the Russian Government for 182 engines, at 
a cost of $4,000,000 for the railroad from St. Petersburg to Moscow) cost $1 1,078.04. 

The estimate of spikes necessary to finish the New York and Erie Railroad 
is 1,057,224 pounds; of castings, chairs, &c., 4,383,268 pounds. (See Engineer's 
report.) 

As I intend, in a future communication, to give some further detail of the con- 
sumption of domestic iron for railway purposes, it is hoped the above general facts 
will be satisfactory. I have deemed them important, because some suppose that 
this consumption, immediate and prospective, is actually more in tons than that 
of the rail itself. Now with such facts, with the home consumption which these 
railways create, both directly and indirectly, why, in the name of Pennsylvania, 
is this change of policy of stopping the demand, nay, the very avenues, which 
are to give her the means of cheap transportation for her iron, and create for her 
new markets.^ And if she advances, for 11 years to come, as rapidly in capital 
and skill in the manufacture of this article, as for the 1 1 years in which iron for 
railways has been duty free, will furnish that species of iron also, not only for 
this country, but for exportation. Time will not permit me to press this inquiry 
further, but I hope enough has been said to arrest the attention of the able states- 
man of that great and growing State, and, with a candid examination, I am confi- 
dent of the result. 

Again: The more extended a railway is, as a general principle, the more profit- 
able. Why stop their progress, when the average annual income of the 5,000 
miles now built in the United States is not supposed to exceed i per cent, on the 
investment? Will the Treasury receipts* for the current year justify a tariff so 
unequal and disproportionate? 

Here are the prices of railroad stocks sold at the Stock Exchange, New York, 
January i, 1844. 

*Here are those of the custom-house at N. York above, being $2,016,586.83, for the first 24 days 
in February; and those at Boston, from January i to February 24, 1844, being $813,285.52; while, from 
January i to February 24, 1843, they were $267,335.89 only. 



LIFE <^ND TIMES OF ^LVAH CROCKETi^ 89 

Those companies marked with a # have never paid any dividends. The 
others average about 5 per cent, per annum. 

New York and Erie #10 a 15 per cent. 

Mohawk #52 a 53 do. 

Harlem #42 a 43 do. 

Utica and Schenectady 119 a 120 per cent. 

Syracuse and Utica 105 a 106 do. 

Auburn and Syracuse no do. 

Auburn and Rochester 104 do. 

Brooklyn and Jamaica #75 a 80 do. 

Long Island #70 do. 

New Jersey 98 a 99 do. 

Paterson #80 a 85 do. 

Troy and Saratoga #nothing 

Troy and Schenectady #15 a 25 do. 

Providence and Stonington #34 a 35 do. 

Norwich and Worcester #33 a 33^ do. 

New Haven and Hartford #65 do. 

Tonawanda #60 a 65 do. 

Buffalo and Niagara # 5 a 10 do. 

Lockport #nothing 

Buffalo and Attica 75 a 80 do. 

Saratoga and Washington #40 a 42 do. 

The stocks of Michigan and Illinois are considered without value, until the few fin- 
ished routes in those States substitute the heavy T rail, which depends upon this duty. 

The Southern railroad stocks are not much known, and very few of them have 
ever made dividends. 

There are several roads in New Jersey that are barely able to keep in existence, 
but their condition is generally improving a little. 

(The amount of railroad iron imported into New York since March, 1843 was 
a small lot of about 500 tons for the Norwich and Worcester extension; and very 
recently a lot for the Harlem Company, of about 1,100 tons, now in the hands of 
the Government, and about 800 tons for the Mohawk Company, in which duties 
have been paid. The total may be estimated at 2,500 to 3,000 tons.) 

Further: Government has expended millions upon forts for the protection of 
her harbors — why prevent, or obstruct the building of railways, which are not only 
to man these forts in the least possible time, but also, when they reach our frontiers, 
give to it the power of concentrating troops and warlike stores in case of border 
outbreaks, or foreign aggression, for a small fraction of what it has cost heretofore? 

Again: While the imposition of this duty was pending during the first session 
of the 27th Congress, it was then asserted, as it has been ever since, that there was 
abundance of capital ready to embark in the manufacture of railway iron. It is 
submitted, that not one pound* of the T or edge rail has been made. It is true, 

*One of the largest and most respectable houses in the iron trade in New York has given out stand- 
ing orders for the last year, but has not been able to obtain a pound. 



■ ? , 

•r 

If 



90 LIFE ^ND TIMES OF ^LVAH CROCKET^ 

that a few hundred tons of the common plate rail were made in Allegheny county, 
Pennsylvania, by a company, which, since this heavy duty was imposed, has 
become utterly bankrupt; and it is said that a few hundred tons of the same article 
are now being made for some road in Michigan. But the undersigned attempted 
himself, in behalf of the Boston and Fitchburg Railroad, to purchase 4,000 tons 
of the edge rail, which is the only suitable one for any road, for cash, and totally 
failed. The agent of the company, after keeping him in suspense some two 
months, informed him that he could not contract to deliver the iron at New 
Orleans, or to any other point of ship communication, for $60 the ton.* As this 
was some $15 per ton (including freights to Boston) more than the iron would 
cost, duty and all, the hope of using Pennsylvania iron was then abandoned. And 
notwithstanding the letters and memorials which are now being sent to members 
of Congress asserting the ability and readiness to make the article, for a reasonable 
price, the friends of remission deny both; ask the proof; go farther, and say — 
"take your time," "be sure you are right," and when you are ready to make and 
deliver the edge rail at Philadelphia, Baltimore, or New York, for 50 per cent, 
more than it costs delivered in England, they will not only become purchasers, 
but join in petitioning for a revival of the duty, should Congress afford them relief. 

Upon the subject of memorials, allow me to notice a little more directly some 
of the reasons as set forth in one of them to the Senate of the United States against 
remitting this duty. 

It said "that railway companies now ask for a legislation peculiar to itself." 

Ans. It has been the policy of the Government for 11 years, and we only ask 
for even-handed justice. 

It said "that Government has lost $4,000,000" by her liberal and enlightened 
policy. 

Ans. This would have gained, only at a more severe sacrifice, and loss in 
the stocks of said companies. — See sales of stock, page 7. 

It is significantly asked, "What has been the result of this policy upon the 
industry, currency, and credit of the country?" 

Ans. Let Massachusetts, which (as has been said) has brought her railroad 
system nearest to completion, having expended more than 18 millions for such 
roads, reply. 

It said "That the foreign manufacturer pockets the difference in price, instead 
of paying it into the United States Treasury." 

Ans. Here a one-sided view is given, by citing only three years. The remain- 
ing seven would have shown a different result, as will appear upon page S- 

It said "that works erected for this purpose, will be forced into the manufacture 
of those kinds of iron, which are highly protected." 

Ans. How many tons of railway iron have these works made? And where 
have they been erected for this purpose? 

*See also report of the commissioner of the State of Michigan, upon buying railway iron in the 
United States. 



LIFE -^ND TIMES OF ^LVAH CROCKETi^ 91 

It said "that by this duty the construction of railroads will not be retarded 
more than they ought to be." 

Ans. Why retard them at all? And then, again, in the same breath (strange 
inconsistency) "that their cost will not be sensibly increased" — See page 6, where 
the duty is given for 100 miles. 

The memorial then speaks of the "extensive construction of solid and permanent 
roads." 

Do the memorialists mean to use the plate rail, the only kind yet made here.'' 

It said "that most of our great channels of communication have been con- 
structed, and mines opened by canals and railroads." 

Denied; but, if so, why put a stopper on the rest.' 

This memorial then goes on to speak of "States groaning under debts, which 
can only be liquidated by rendering these works profitable, instead of encouraging, 
by special legislation, rival works, to the injury of those that have been made." 

I answer, that in the case of those States whose works now remain unfinished, 
this duty makes them groan still louder; and where works "have been made," 
it smells of monopoly. 

The memorial then says (strange), "Railroads are not entitled to any exclusive 
favor, as they have not developed and unfolded the mineral resources of the country, 
but canals."* 

*By the report of the Navigation and Reading Railroad Company, for the past season, it would 
seem that they have transported 218,700 tons of coal to Philadelphia, at a cost of $278,800. By the 
interesting report of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company, we learn "that in pursuance of a propo- 
sition which was recently made to the Railroad Company, by the Maryland and New York Iron and 
Coal Company, which company is possessed of the requisite funds for the construction of a railroad to 
Cumberland, and which is anxious to complete such road in the shortest possible time, a negotiation 
was entered into which had terminated in a contract with that company for the transportation of a spe- 
cific quantity per day of coal and other articles for a period of five years. The terms of this contract are 
that the Maryland and New York Company engage to make a railroad from the mines to the depot 
in Cumberland, and will furnish freight for one train of cars, supposed to transport 175 tons of coal 
per day for 300 days in the year; and the Railroad Company engage to transport that amount of freight, 
in the manner proposed, from the mines to Baltimore, at one and a third cents per ton per mile, a dis- 
tance of 188 miles, with ten cents per ton for transportation through the streets of Baltimore; and one 
cent per ton per mile for 188 miles in addition, upon manufactured iron, when required to be trans- 
ported in horse cars; the Maryland and New York Company to load and unload the cars. This contract 
is not limited to coal, but may embrace in addition, pig iron, bar iron, fire bricks, castings, and other 
manufactures of iron. 

To show still more fully the cost of working a railroad at this low figure here is the report of the 
accomplished engineer (Mr. Latrobe): "It assumes that three locomotive engines will be required to 
do the constant duty of two; each engine to be of twenty tons weight, and to draw thirty cars, carrying 
seven tons of coal each, making 210 tons of coal transported by each train — that to conduct the business 
economically there should be two such trains daily, the distance travelled daily, down and up by each 
train, being ninety miles. Founding their estimate on this basis, and supposing coal to be used for 
fuel at a cost of $1.68 per ton, the only wages or compensation for services, being for enginemen, firemen, 
and two brakemen; one quarter of a cent per ton per mile, being allowed for repairs and renewals of 
cars; and the same amount for wear and tear of road; no allowance being made for the cost of the road — 
and 12 per cent, being allowed for contingencies, the aggregate of cost thus obtained is 741-1000 cents 



92 LIFE ^ND TIMES OF ^ALVAH CROCKEfB^ 

Can it be possible that those highly respectable memorialists have forgotten 
the Reading and Columbia railroads* which run to their city; the Mauch Chunk, 
which, with its branches, is 25 miles long, built for the exclusive purpose of "devel- 
oping and unfolding" the Anthracite coal; and while I would not for one moment 
question the utility of canals, I would leave this memorial, by submitting, that 
railroads, if protected by Government, will, in the end, supersede them: because, 
in the coldest climates, they can be used at all seasons of the year. 

I ought, perhaps, before closing, to notice a single other objection from another 
source. It is said "that some of the long lines of railways extort from Government 
an exorbitant price for mail service; therefore, Congress ought not to remit this 
duty." This is precisely what such companies want, because you shut out a proper 
competition by this prohibition. Other companies are debarred from constructing 
roads, which would perform such service for a fair price. It is submitted, therefore, 
and mark that quotation from the memorial above-named, which says, "railroads 
will not be retarded more than they ought to be." For the proof: Whether to retain 
this duty is not special legislation, for the especial benefit of any such company. 

Permit me now to add two or three obvious reasons why the T or the edge 
rail will not yet be made. 

1st. Want of capital. An investment of six millions of dollars would probably 
be necessary for the ordinary demand, owing to the large expenditure necessary for 
proper machinery to make this kind of iron, which, after all, is supposed to be only 
a fiftieth part of what is required for other domestic purposes in the United States. 
Or where 50 tons of iron are required for common use, there is one used for railways. 

2d. The manufacturers do not yet supply the demand for the merchant bar, 
and other irons, which are more profitable with less capital. And lastly, the dis- 
tance of the mountain oresf from the seaboard, making the cost of transportation 
of the iron about as much as the cost of manufacture in Wales, and showing clearly 
that these ores will be more or less valuable, only, as railroads are permitted to 
reach them. It seems to the undersigned that this reasoning is conclusive. It so 
appears to many in the commercial capital of Pennsylvania, (Philadelphia,) which 
has memorialized Congress for this repeal, and what is more remarkable, said 
memorial contains the signatures of eight presidents of railways, who are doubtless 
anxious to extend their roads with a full knowledge of this fact. Here is another 
piece of evidence, in an extract from a letter from a commercial house in New York. 

per ton per mile. Upon this estimate the transport of 105,000 tons during the canalling season of 250 
days — that is, two trains of 210 tons each day, at the offered rate of ij^ cents per ton per mile, will give 
to the company a profit of $18,722." 

*Now asking you for relief. 

■fThe public improvements of the State of Pennsylvania are said to be within some 30 miles of the 
Great Western Iron Company, where, by the alternate layers of coal, and the ore, they are best pre- 
pared for this species of manufacture. It is claimed that the article can be made at the Montour and 
Wilkes Barre works, on the Susquehanna, Crane works, and on the Lehigh, while in the very teeth of 
such a claim, is the fact, that the Reading railroad purchased English rails the past season. 



LIFE ^AND TIMES OF ^LVAH CROCKE%^ 



93 



(extract) 

Allow me to call your attention to an advertisement in the Journal of Com- 
merce, by which you will observe a proposal is made by the Sandusky City Railroad 
Company, Ohio, for i,6oo tons of the ordinary flat railroad iron bar, of the size 
used by the Utica and Schenectady Company, (30 by 35 tons per mile.) 

It is a well known fact, that the expense of transporting flat bars of iron from the 
western part of Pennsylvania, or Pittsburg, to Cleveland, on Lake Erie, ranges 
from $5 to $7 per ton, while, from the Hudson river, via Buffalo to Cleveland, it 
costs from $ii to $20. Now, with this heavy protection, by the additional cost of 
inland transportation from the seaboard, and an almost prohibitory import duty 
of $25, (amounting to $38 or $40 per ton*). The manufacturers of Western Penn- 
sylvania, (if there are any there,) are unable to supply the most ordinary wants of 
their own vicinity, or any of the neighboring States. 

I believe it is a fact beyond the reach of dispute, that not one step has yet been 
taken, in any part of the Union, for the manufacture of the heavy T or edge rail, 
with which the great roads throughout the country, in an unfinished state, must 
be completed, there being neither permanency or safety in the flat rail, where speed 
and heavy trains are required. 

Sixteen Hundred Tons of Railroad Iron Wanted. — (copy.) 

Proposals, by letter or otherwise, will be received by the undersigned, at the 
office of the Mansfield and Sandusky City Railroad Company, in Sundusky city, 
until the isth of April next, for the above quantity of American or imported iron, 
in flat bars, of good quality, weighing 30 to 35 tons to the mile, to be delivered free 
of charge on the waters of the Hudson, at New York or Albany, or at Buffalo, 
at Portsmouth, Cleveland, or Sandusky, Ohio; at Beaver, on the Ohio river, or at 
some port on Lake Ontario, during the navigable season of 1844, and all by the 
month of September next, if practicable. 

Proposers will please give the width and thickness of the bar, and the kind 
of joint, and their most favorable terms as to price and payment. Good references 
will be given and required, of the abilities of each party to fulfil any proposal that 
its officers or agents may accept. 

C. WILLIAMS, Enginter. 
Sandusky City, Ohio, January 16, 1844 B. HIGGINS, Superintendent. 

Before assigning any special reasons which bear upon the company whose 
interests I more immediately represent, permit me to give one more illustration 
of the effect of this duty. Congress, by the act of August, 1842, imposed a duty 
of 8 cents the bushel, of 56 pounds, upon salt. For every 50 miles of railway 
from the purchasing market, where there is no water communication, which this 
said duty upon railway iron prevents from construction, it imposes a duty of at 
least 16 cents per bushel more, in the extra cost of transportation. f 

I know the opponents to this remission will say that Congress cannot discrimi- 
nate; that there is an equal claim from the ship-builder, as vessels are also common 
carriers, and why should not their iron be free? It seems to me that the last named 

*To which may be added freight, insurance, &c., from England, ^5 to $8 per ton. 
fSalt at Nashua, N.H., 41 miles from Boston, cost 40 cents, by railroad, per bushel. Salt at 
Fitchburg, Massachusetts, between 40 and 50 miles from Boston, cost 75 cents, by team, per bushel. 



94 LIFE ^ANB TIMES OF -lALFJH CROCKET^ 

class are one step in advance of us. They have the common element of water to 
run upon, free of charge, and are protected by tonnage duties, while by your tariff 
upon the rail, you say that the enterprising and persevering citizen shall not, 
though he will do it at great expense, and risk of pecuniary sacrifice; and though 
he would confer, too, an admitted national benefit, create artificial channels, to 
place himself, as near as possible, on a footing with those who daily hear the 
music of old ocean's surge, or witness the proud steamboat ploughing the currents 
of our noble rivers and lakes, or who even hear the shrill whistle, and puff of the 
locomotive upon iron rails, duty free. 

Once more: It is urged that to discriminate in favor of railway iron, is to favor 
purse proud corporations rather than individuals. I will not waste paper upon 
this objection. For how can railways be built but by Government, or by associated 
individual effort? And if individuals here are willing to assume burdens which 
some of the most enlightened Governments in Europe have been obliged to assume, 
to answer the demands of public sentiment, why should this American Govern- 
ment, which claims to be still more enlightened, under pretext of revenue, suck, 
almost, the last drop of blood, from the veins of individuals, who associate, not 
from choice, but necessity? It being well known, that the power of taking land 
for public use can be exercised, only by corporations, duly authorized by Govern- 
ment. My conclusions, then, are: 

1st. Eleven years' permission to import iron, duty free, has given railways 
to the richest sections of country, with the power to undersell such other sections, 
as were too poor to build them thus early. 

2d. That while (though in infancy) railroads were beginning to unlock our 
hidden resources, to consolidate and unite us, while they were in a state of progress, 
Government steps in, and, by a change of law, arrests their completion, sacrifices 
millions invested, under a guarantee of said eleven years' policy, to the ruin of 
some of her most industrious citizens. 

3d. That upon this iron rail, American tariffs will have little or no effect, as 
it is not now made here; that the leading foreign market to England is the conti- 
nent, and with all that consumption, it is estimated that one-third of her forges 
are out of blast, while I have shown, by a table of prices, that from 1838 to 1842, 
the article, though duty free, was constantly falling (with the American consump- 
tion increasing), and by the competition of British manufacturers, probably 
would have receded to its present price, tariff, or no tariff; showing that the 
railway companies pay this duty of more than 100 per cent. 

4th. That the immediate and prospective use of domestic iron for railroads, 
alone, probably equals the weight of the rail; consequently, every ton* of railway 
iron imported, makes a demand for one ton of domestic manufacture. 

Sth. That, in consequence of this use of the new avenues which railroads 

*By an estimate of the able and experienced superintendent of the Worcester railroad (44 miles 
long), the iron used annually for the repairs of engines and cars, alone, is 300,000 lbs. On this basis the 
400 miles of railway, in Massachusetts, only consume 2,400,000 lbs. 



LIFE ^ND TIMES OF ^LVAH CROCKEfR^ 95 

create for the development of the mountain ores, and cheap transit to points of 
consumption, the impulse which they give to other manufactures, which create 
a market for iron of qualities more profitable to make, Pennsylvania, herself, if 
she would give strength and permanency to one of her great staples, has a deep 
interest in the remission of this duty, till more capital and a better preparation 
exist for its manufacture. 

6th. That if the object of this duty of 100 per cent, be revenue, it is unequal, 
and disproportionate; unwarranted by the present receipts of the treasury, and 
levied upon companies ill able to bear it. 

7th. That in a national point of view, railways are the best protection to our 
harbors and frontiers, by the facility with which troops, and munitions of war, 
can be transported; and therefore, in lieu of a prohibitory duty, they deserve the 
fostering aid and support of this Government. 

8th. That no T or edge rail will, for some years, be made for 50 per cent, 
above foreign cost; and perhaps I may add here, that the attempt to make it in 
the present infancy of our iron manufacture, would probably be disastrous, unless 
aided by a bounty from the Government. 

9th. That, independent of this tariff, giving a monopoly in travel — in ability 
to undersell in produce and manufactures (by cheap transportation) to every section 
of the country which would now build railways, were this duty off. Government 
imposes, indirectly, for every 50 miles inland, (without water communication) 
an additional duty of i6 cents per bushel above the 8 now paid, upon the poor 
man's sale, in extra cost of delivery. 

And, lastly, that the tendency of stopping new railways, by a preventive 
duty, is to make monopolies of the few already finished. 

These conclusions I shall endeavor to maintain, backed with many facts, which 
want of room will not permit me to insert here. 

The reason which your memorialists believe apply to them especially are — 

1st. They were chartered, had made surveys, and incurred much expense 
in various ways, prior to the act of 1842. 

2d. This railway starts from the United States navy yard in Charlestown, 
and penetrates the richest ship timber country in New England, and will reduce 
the price of ship building material at that point to the Navy Department from 
20 to 25 per cent. 

3d. This line of railroad is now chartered through the State of Vermont to 
Burlington, will finally end at Ogdensburg, upon the St. Lawrence, and, if the 
policy of Government allows it to be completed, will be equal to 20,doo troops 
maintained and supported upon our northern frontier. 

4th. It passes through the richest mineral regions in the United States, pro- 
ducing iron, copperas, marble, (equal to the finest Carrara) Manganese, Kaolin 
earth, snow-white quartz, for sand paper and flint glass, slate, soapstone, &c. And 
though they would be valuable with such means of conveyance, are now, many 
of them, worthless. 



96 LIFE ^ND TIMES OF ^LVAH CROCKET^ 

Sth. It brings Boston, the metropolis of New England, within i6 hours of the 
capital of the Canadas, when completed to Burlington, and, by the Cunard line 
of steamers, unites the old world with the new. And should Congress, in its 
wisdom, hereafter devise and mature some plan for the passage of goods,* and 
merchandise from the Atlantic, across the St. Lawrence, by the payment of some 
small transit duty,t it would give much of the carrying trade between said Canadas 
and the mother country to United States vessels, and to this line of railroad. 

And lastly, your memorialists pray for a reduction of this duty, upon the 
broad and immutable principle of equal justice to all — a claim before which, no 
arguments of mere political expediency can for one moment stand. 

In behalf of the Boston and Fitchburg Railway Company. 

A. CROCKER, President 

Note — The amount paid for construction of railroads in Massachusetts up 
to December 3, 1843, with the Nashua, was $18,583,835. The dividends received 
for the year ending December 31, 1843, $695,571. 

Take any 20 of the railroads in the United States, including those in New 
England, and they do not pay an average of 5 per cent per annum, on the actual 
amount of capital paid. Who is then benefited ? Certainly not the stockholders, 
but the public. 

On page 126, the Worcester road (44 miles in length) is spoken of. Its detail 
of furniture is 312 freight, and 24 passenger cars, and 18 engines, with more than 
2,000,000 lbs. of domestic iron used. Such facts show, what probably has not 
been duly considered by the iron interest, the vast consumption of American 
iron, from the engine down to the spike, and its constant use, by railways. That 
interest should also remember, that they cannot now supply the demand for 
domestic purposes, should the railroads be allowed to go on and finish. And 
that as near as can be ascertained, the amount of capital paid in for iron works, 

*See the able report of the Secretary of the Treasury to the 28th Congress, upon this subject. 

tSome idea of the ultimate importance of this trade may be inferred, from the following extract 
from the Merchant's Magazine for January, 1844: "Length of Canada, from the Gulf of St. Lawrence 
to Goose Lake, is 1,000 miles; width, from north to south, on the average, 300 miles. The area is 300,000 
square miles, or two and a half times that of Great Britain and Ireland. The population in 1831 was 
800,000, in 1843, by estimate, 1,250,000, about equal to Denmark. 

Theaverage value of the imports for eight years preceding 1840 $6,711,941 

The value of the imports for 1839 was 8,905,752 

Average value of exports for eight years preceding 1840 4,085,629 

Exports for 1839 were 4,380,571 

The shipping that entered the ports of Canada for 1838, 560,285 tons; that cleared, 424,251; less 
than the average for seven preceding years. The Rideau Canal is 135 miles long from Kingston, on 
Lake Ontario, to the Chaudiere Falls, on the Ottawa river, cost ?i,ooo,ooo. The area of Canada equals 
New England, New York, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Michigan. This vast tract of country, it is well 
known, can only use the St. Lawrence about 5 months in a year, and by a liberal provision of this sort 
the carrying trade would fall mainly upon New York and New England." 



LIFE ^ND TIMES OF ^ylLVAH CROCKEK^ 97 

pretending to make the flat rails, (snake head, travellers call it) will not exceed 
one million of dollars, while the railroad capital actually paid in, with a large 
portion of the roads unfinished, exceeds one hundred millions. 

REPORT OF THE HON. ALVAH CROCKER, COMMISSIONER 

Acting as superintendent of the work upon the Troy and Greenfield 
Railroad and Hoosac Tunnel: together with the reports of the chief and 
consulting engineers: 

To His Excellency the Governor, and the Honorable the Executive 
Council of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. 

As Commissioner acting as superintendent of work upon the Troy and Green- 
field Railroad and Hoosac Tunnel, I have the honor to submit herewith my Report 
of the operations of the fourteen months ending December 31, 1867, and a statement 
of the condition of the work at that time; accompanied by reports of engineers 
Field and Granger, and other documents of interest as tending to show in detail 
the present condition of the enterprise. 

THE TROY AND GREENFIELD RAILROAD 

The chief engineer herewith transmits a full report in detail of its present status 
and condition. 

This officer has been unremitting in his efforts to improve the alignment of a 
difficult location, and I acknowledge my obligations to him for his industry and 
fidelity. 

Prior to, contemporary with, and subsequent to the contract with Mr. B. N. 
Farren, I have rendered him such assistance as was in my power. 

I have also met the constituted authorities of Franklin County in the matter 
of road crossings and the changes of common roads, to whom I desire to acknowl- 
edge my obligations for the promptitude with which they acted, and their evident 
and marked effort to secure for the Commonwealth a width sufficient for the rail- 
road track in the narrow gorges of the Deerfield Valley. 

The first section of this railroad, from Greenfield to Shelburne Falls, for which 
twenty thousand dollars per annum is to be paid, under lease, by the Fitchburg and 
Vermont and Massachusetts Railroads conjointly, was opened on Jan. i, 1868; it 
being understood that such portion of the same as was not quite finished, by reason 
of the early frost, shall be done as soon as practicable. It gives me great pleasure 
to state, in conclusion, that Mr. B. N. Farren has shown the same energy and skill 
as he has in contracts heretofore; and the Commonwealth is greatly indebted to 
this efficient contractor for the thorough character of the masonry, bridging, road- 
bed and superstructure in this work. 



98 LIFE ^ND TIMES OF ^LVAH CROCKER 



TUNNEL BRIDGE 

The only work now remaining uncontracted for east of the Tunnel is the bridge 
and embankment over the Deerfield River, near the Tunnel. The construction of 
this bridge is rendered necessary in early spring, so that the debris from the Tunnel 
can be used for the large embankment, of some 60,000 yards, east of the Deerfield 
River. Authority should be given for its construction the ensuing spring. The 
cost of a double-track bridge is estimated by Mr. Field, chief engineer, to be $25,000. 

As the railroad is on the north side of the river, at the proposed site of the 
Tunnel Depot, it will be necessary to build a common road-bridge to give easy 
access to the same. 

The Deerfield River bounds the counties of Berkshire and Franklin; the town 
of Florida in the former and Rowe in the latter. The Troy and Greenfield Rail- 
road will probably be opened to the Tunnel by July next; and it would appear 
that no time should be lost in taking the necessary steps for securing the con- 
struction of said bridge, either by applying to the two respective counties, or other- 
wise. 



A NEW ROAD UP THE DEERFIELD FROM THE MOUTH OF 

THE TUNNEL 

This road, though not a part of the State enterprise, is deeply interwoven with 
its success, opening as it does an almost inexhaustible supply of lumber, which 
now, by the isolated condition of the east end, it is almost impossible to obtain at 
certain seasons of the year. It is understood that about eight miles — to wit, four 
in Berkshire County and four in Franklin County — will open communication with 
Whitingham, Wilmington and many other towns in Vermont, and with Rowe 
and Monroe in this Commonwealth. I hazard nothing in saying, that, in the 
purchase of lumber and supplies alone, it would, to this date, have saved to the 
State the whole cost of building. The southwestern towns of Vermont ask for 
this access to the Tunnel line; but the fact of the location of the road in two counties 
(Berkshire and Franklin), coupled with the uncertainty heretofore felt as to the 
date of the completion of the railroad in the Tunnel, has thus far prevented its 
construction. 

I have addressed the two boards of county commissioners upon this matter, 
so important to the Commonwealth in the development of this section of Massa- 
chusetts. I have met them once by appointment, and at other times incidentally; 
and can but express the hope that now, as the policy of the State is defined, they 
will no longer hestitate in opening the vast timber resources of this region to the 
enterprise and industry of the wood manufacturers of Western Massachusetts, 
and to its citizens generally. 



LIFE ^ND TIMES OF ^LVAH CROCKE% 99 



DEERFIELD DAM AND WHEEL-HOUSE 

I have caused the apron of this dam to be thoroughly repaired. Where it was 
likely to be undermined by freshets, the washed places have been filled with stone. 

In view of the great importance of a continuous prosecution of work on the 
heading, and the contingencies always attending the use of water power, such as 
anchor ice, short water, or breakage of wheels, &c., I have purchased under the 
authority of the Commission, an eighty horse-power Tufts engine and boiler, 
but little worn, for $3,600. This engine, it is believed, will always be sufficient to 
drive the heading in case of need. 

THE NEW FLUME, Sox 16 FEET, RENDERED NECESSARY BY THE 
ADDITION OF TWO NEW TURBINE WHEELS, AND FOR 
CLEARING ANCHOR ICE FROM THE CANAL 

Ample preparation, in the way of contracts for lumber and material, was made 
early in the season for the construction of this flume; but unforeseen accidents 
and casualties have delayed its completion. The death of one of the contracting 
parties; injuries, resulting from an accident, sustained by another; the inability of 
Messrs. Dull, Gowan and White to saw the timber and plank in consequence of 
low water, — which cause effectually stopped all the other mills in this vicinity, — 
and finally, the burning of 20,000 feet of plank — enough for the whole flume — at 
the central shaft, rendered it next to impossible to obtain lumber suitable for this 
purpose until quite late in the season. 

I am glad to be able to report, however, that this important work will soon 
be finished. 

COMPRESSORS AND WATER-WHEELS 

Under authority of the Commission two new turbine wheels were purchased 
of Messrs. Kilbourn, Lincoln & Co., at Fall River, for $1,800 each, to drive the 
two new compressors which were purchased of the Putnam Machine Company, 
of Fitchburg (the lowest bidder), for $3,000 each. These compressors are similar 
to the No. I now in operation, and are now upon the ground awaiting the connection 
of the flume with the canal. The construction of this new flume, the additional 
compressors, and, in case of need, the engine already referred to, will undoubtedly 
furnish sufficient power for running the drills continuously. 



MACHINE SHOP 

The addition constructed of wood is ready for the compressors. This depart- 
ment is under the charge of Mr. R. J. Parker, and is conducted with great energy 
and economy. 



lOO LIFE <lAND times OF ^LVAH CROCKETR^ 

East End Heading 





Nov. 


I, 1865, to Nov. I 


1866 


No\ 


. I, 1866, to Jan. 


1, 1868 


















Distance 
from Portal 


Progress 


Size of 
Heading 


Distance 
from Portal 


Progress 


Size of 
Heading 


November I, 


2,839.0 


— 


— 


3,431 


— 


— 


December I, 


2,904.0 


65.0 


6^x 14 


3,473 


42 


8x 17 


January i, 


2,950.5 


46.5 




3,521 


48 


(( 


February i, 


3,005.0 


54-5 




3,581 


60 


il 


March I, 


3,052.0 


47.0 




3,636 


55 


8x 18 


April I, 


3,115-0 


63.0 




3,727 


91 


*' 


May I, 


3,176.5 


61.5 




3,810 


83 


" 


June I, 


3,227.0 


50.5 




3,897 


87 


(( 


July I, 


3,253-5 


26.S 


8x17 


3,999 


102 


a 


August I, 


3,301.5 


48.0 




4,130 


131 


(( 


September i, 


3,356.0 


54.5 




4,253 


123 


8x 21 


October i, 


3,394-5 


38.5 




4,364 


II I 


8^^ X 24 


November i, 


3,431-0 


36.5 




4,481 


"7 


it 


December i, 


— 


— 


— 


4,607 


126 


ii 


January i, 


— 


— 


— 


4,708 


lOI 


ii 






592.0 ft. 






1,277 ft. 





It will be observed that the progress since June has been much greater than 
before, averaging, for seven months, 115 6/7 feet per month against an average 
of 66 4/7 feet during the previous seven, and of 49 4/12 during twelve months, 
ending Oct. 31, 1866. This gain has been owing, in the main, to the substitution 
of the improved Burleigh drill, — in place of the first machine drill, which proved a 
failure, — and to the experience and familiarity with their working which time alone 
could give. 

During the three months in which the contractors had the work, every reason- 
able facility was afforded them, both by myself and by those under my charge, 
until they were relieved from their contract at their own request, and by order of 
the governor and council, dated November 9th. On the iSth, we received from 
them formal possession of the work. 

In November, 1867, we advanced the heading 126 feet, and in the first six days 
of December 36 feet, — being the greatest weekly progress yet attained upon the 
tunnel heading, — and as has already been shown, during the month we made loi 
feet, work after the 24th being suspended in consequence of anchor ice. 

In taking leave of the east end, I would add, the amount of rock taken out 
of the enlargment during the year was 4,391 cubic yards. Undoubtedly it is desir- 
able, as soon as practicable, to bring the enlargement and heading nearer together. 



LIFE ^ND TIMES OF ^LVAH CROCKET^ loi 

This we are now constantly accomplishing. The advancement of the heading is, 
however, the true key to progress. True economy would seem to indicate that we 
should prosecute the enlargement with the utmost vigor when we have plenty of 
power from the extra flow of water in the Deerfield, keeping it as a reserve for this 
purpose. We are now, — while we cannot drive the heading on account of anchor 
ice, — vigorously prosecuting the work on the enlargement. 



Centilal Shaft 



Date 



November I 
December I 
January I 
February I . 
March I . . 
April I . . . 
May I . . . 
June I . . . 
July I . . . 
August 1 . . 
September I 
October I 
October 19 . 
November I 



Nov. I, 1865, to Nov. I, 1866 



Dist. down Progress 



200.8 
220.1 

232-5 
250.7 
264.0 
280.9 
297.1 

300. s 

300.5 

3II-9 
33I-I 

354-0 



19.3 
12.4 
18.2 

13-3 

16.9 

16.2 

3-4 



11.4 
19.2 

22.9 



153.2 ft. 



Nov. I, 1866, to Oct. 19, 1867 



Dist. down Progress 



354-0 
377.2 
393-0 
413.0 

434-S 
454-5 
480.0 
506.0 
527.0 

546. 5 
560.0 
572.0 
583.0 



23.2 
15.8 
20.0 

21-5 

20.0 
25.5 
26.0 
21.0 
19-5 
13-5 
12.0 

II.O 



229.0 ft. 



Average monthly progress while in the hands of the State 21.4 feet 

Progress, while in the hands of the contractors — 

In August 13 " 

In September 12 " 

In October 11 " 

36 " 

On the 19th of October, the buildings at this shaft were destroyed by fire; for 
detailed account of which see Mr. Peet's report herewith. 

Number of cubic yards excavated by the State 2,274 

Number of cubic yards excavated by the contractors 424 

2,698 



I02 



LIFE ^ND TIMES OF ^ALVAH CROCKETi^ 



The preparations for working this shaft were defective. I called the attention 
of the Commissioners to this fact in the winter of last year, and in a communication 
of the Sth of March last past. The pumps were inadequate, and the boilers, by the 
large extra consumption of fuel, worthless. I deemed it a duty to apprize Mr. J. J. 
Dull of these facts, and of the necessity for another engine for hoisting before 
the negotiation for this contract was closed, as appeared in a hearing at the east 
end before Messrs. Talbot and Evans, a committee of the Council. In reconstruct- 
ing the works at this shaft, I consider strength and toughness as the truest economy; 
and would advise the best machinery for lifting and pumping, fireproof walls 
between the dome and machine-room and boilers and engine separated from either. 
Acting upon this principle, I have already placed the new saw-mill away from its 
former connection with the shaft, driving it with a portable engine, which, with 
the mill machinery, cost about $2,400, the old burnt mill being received in part 
payment. 

I have contracted for 250,000 feet of spruce lumber, delivered in the log at the 
mill, at $10.50 per thousand, and 100,000 feet of hemlock at $8 per thousand. 



West Shaft, East Heading 





Nov. I 


, 1865, to Nov. I, 


1866 


Nov. 


, 1866, to Jan. 


I, 1368 


Date 


Dist. from 
Shaft 


Progress 


Size of 
Heading 


Dist. from 
Shaft 


Progress 


Size of 
Heading 


November I, 


367-5 


— 





1,004.2 


— 


— 


December I, 


414.4 


46.9 


6x15 


1,042.0 


37-8 


6x 15 


January I, 


459-4 


45-0 


6x IS 


1,046.0 


4-0 


6x 15 


February i, 


503-0 


43-6 


6x IS 


* 


— 


6x 15 


March i, 


546-S 


43-5 


6x IS 


* 


— 


6x 15 


April I, 


S84.8 


38-3 


6x IS 


* 


— 


6x15 


May I, 


623.3 


38-5 


6x IS 


* 


— 


6x 15 


June I, 


682.1 


58.8 


6x IS 


1 1, 046.0 


— 


6x IS 


July I, 


746.1 


64.0 


6x IS 


1,066.0 


20.0 


7X22>^ 


August I, 


810.5 


64.4 


6x IS 


1,097.0 


34-0 


7X21}4 


September I, 


871.4 


60.9 


6x15 


1,136.0 


390 


7^21)4 


October I, 


945-4 


74-0 


6x15 


1,185.0 


49.0 


TLiiyi 


November i, 


1,004.2 


58.8 


6x 15 


1,239.0 


54-0 


Taizyi 


December i, 


— 


— 


— 


1,272.0 


33-0 


7X22>^ 


January I, 


— 


— 


— 


1,294.0 


22.0 


7X22>< 






636.7 ft. 






292.8 ft. 





'Stopped on account of water. fFourteenth. 



LIFE ^ND TIMES OF ^LVAH CROCKETi^ 



103 



West Shaft, West Heading 



Date 



November I, 
December i, 
January I, 
February I, 
March I, 
April I, 
May I, 
June I, 
July I, 
August I, 
September I, 
October I, 
November I, 
November 3, 



Nov. I, 1865, to Nov. I, 1866 



Dist. from 
Shaft 



280.8 
298.0 



Progress 



18.2 



18.2 ft. 



Size of 
Heading 



7x12 



Nov. I. 1866, to Nov. 3, 1867 



Dist. from 
Shaft 



298 



323 
323 
369 
4SI 
512 

S6i 
606 
611 



Progress 



25 

t- 
46 

82 
61 

49 

45 
S 



313 ft. 



Size of 
Heading 



7X 12 

7X 12 
7 X 12 
7x12 
7X 12 
7 X 12 
7X 12 



*No work because of water in tunnel. fStopped on account of water. 



In December, 1866, the miners were driven from the v^est shaft by an influx 
of water estimated at 250 gallons per minute. Subsequently I was instructed, 
and my undivided efforts were given to procure a pump, which would, in the shortest 
time, clear the shaft of water. Some action had been had as far back as the October 
previous, but no pump had been contracted for, although the purchase of a Wil- 
mington Cornish pump had been under consideration before I took charge of the 
work. 

January 4th, 1867, I made a provisional arrangement with Messrs. Knowles 
and Sibley, of Worcester and Warren, for a No. 9 pump to lift 250 gallons per 
minute, which, if it worked well and proved adequate for doing this heavy work, 
was to be received back by them without charge, and another made for the State 
of double capacity — No. 10 1/2. As the small pump was found to work well, the 
latter was ordered for the sum of $900, to be made with extra strength and care. 
This pump, however, did not work as well as the first, and on the 3d of September, 
I ordered of Knowles and Sibley a double-acting plunger pump, to be done in six 
weeks, at a cost of $2,500, and to lift 1,000 gallons per minute. This pump was 
not delivered till the 21st of December, but I am satisfied the delay was from no 
fault of the makers. In the mean time the water, though not regular, had increased 



104 LIFE ^ND TIMES OF ^LVAH CROCKET^ 

to a maximum of at least i,ooo gallons per minute, by the striking of pockets and 
otherwise. I had ordered the ditching of an adjacent swamp, which relieved us 
somewhat of surface water, the most persistent enemy we have to contend with 
in this shaft. The i,ooo gallon mining pump received in December was started 
January 4th, and is now working satisfactorily, and is believed to be larger in 
capacity than the two Wilmington Cornish pumps together, without their expensive 
foundations and buildings. As for this compact and beautiful machine and boiler 
to drive it, we use the Tunnel alone, which it is to clear of water, for a building, 
and its bottom for a foundation. 

I will add here that the 10-1/2 500 gallon pump spoken of, which has caused 
us so much trouble, Messrs. Knowles and Sibley leave to be used in any exigency 
without charge, and decline any pay for it or its repairs, assuring me that they 
know no reason why it should not have worked as well as their other pumps. It 
is only through their promptitude in furnishing the second No. 9 in the flood of 
the last pocket, that our shaft is not full of water to-day, as I believe it would have 
been with the two Wilmington Cornish pumps, if, indeed, they had both been got 
into operation at this time. Our pumping capacity now is as follows: — 

Cost Gab. 

New Knowles pump, ordered Sept. 3d $2,500.00 1,000 

Two No. 9 Knowles pumps i,ioo.oc 500 

One old plunger (Gen'l Haupt), say ^ its capacity — iiiyi 

A small "Worthington" I found here — 125 

The Knowles No. 10^ as a reserve, rated at 500 gallons, say . — 250 

$3,600.00 i,987>^ 



In a year the adit or drain will be finished, and the necessity for pumping will 
be entirely obviated. 

Any economy in fuel between the different kinds of pumps is probably more in 
theory than in practice. One thousand gallons of water a minute cannot be lifted 
237 feet without a large power. Were I to express my humble opinion, or if the 
work was my own, I would not freight the heavy Wilmington machinery for a 
year's use of it, if the freight was the only charge. When the well No. 4, now being 
sunk, and the adit between it and the west shaft is finished, I shall transfer the 
pumping machinery to it, and save 32 feet of lift, or 13 1/2 per cent; and I want 
no pump or boiler that I cannot easily move from its present position in the supple- 
mentary shaft. 

I would add, in conclusion, that we are now — January isth — running both 
the east and west headings of this shaft, the flow of water having decreased to 
about 700 gallons per minute. If I have given more detail to this shaft, it is because 
of the great and almost insurmountable "obstacles we have encountered in prose- 
cuting it. 

In the Appendix will be found a letter from the resident engineer, the opinion 
of Josiah Brown, Jr., a competent engineer, and others upon this subject. 



LIFE -lAND times OF ^LVAH CROCKETi^ 105 



BRICK YARD 

During the year Mr. William Holbrook has made, per contract, 1,943,783 hard 
bricks of most superior quality, which have cost $j per M. He has also made 
240,480 soft bricks at a cost of $4.50. In this last amount were included the out- 
side layers of the kilns, which, having been mixed with coal screenings, were sold 
at the yard for $G per M. 

West End, Completed Brick Tunnel 





Nov. 1, 1865, 


to Nov. I, 1866 




Nov. 1, i86e 


, to Jan. I, 1868 


Date 


Distance 
from Pier 


Progress 


Distance 
from Pier 


Progress 


Going West 




Distance 
from Pier 


Progress 


November I, 








200.0 











December I, 


— 


— 


232.5 


32-5 


— 


— 


January i, 


— 


— 


250.0 


17-5 


— 


— 


February i, 


— 


— 


266.0 


16.0 


— • 


— 


March I, 


— 


— 


280.0 


14.0 


— 


— 


April I, 


— 


— 


295.0 


15-0 


— 


— 


May I, 


— 


— 


320.0 


25.0 


68.5 


— 


June I, 


— 


— 


345-0 


25.0 


44.0 


24.S 


July I, 


— 


— 


371.0 


26.0 


31.75 


12.2 


August I, 


— 


— 


400.0 


29.0 


19.0 


12.8 


August 9, 


68.5 


— 


— 


— 


— 


— 


September I, 


100.5 


32.0 


432.0 


32.0 


4.0 


iS-o 


October i, 


164.0 


63.5 


462.0 


30.0 


— 


— 


November I, 


200.0 


36.0 


490.0 


28.0 


— 


— 


December i, 


— 


— 


520.0 


30.0 


— 


— 


January I, 


— 


— 


550.0 


30.0 





— _ 






131. 5 ft. 




350.0 ft. 




64.S ft. 



SUPPLEMENTARY SHAFT 

6 X 13, was finished March 15, 1867, having been sunk, during the year, 63 4/10 
feet. 

West End. — Farren's Contract 

Completed brick tunnel, going east 35° feet 

Completed brick tunnel, going west 64.5 

Heading 297 " 



io6 LIFE ^ND TIMES OF ^LVAH CROCKETi^ 

On the last day of August Mr. Farren completed his first contract for 374 feet. 
Under the instruction of the Commissioners I arranged the terms for another 
contract for 5CX) feet more of brick arch, on more favorable terms to the Common- 
wealth. I regret to add, that, notwithstanding the promise at one time of better 
material, it has proved worse; as at the west shaft Mr. Farren has constantly 
been contending with an increase of water. And there is much credit due him for 
the energy and perseverance with which he has pushed through this treacherous 
material. He has been forced to drive headings on each side of the central adit, 
and outside of the limits of the tunnel, which, together with the central adit, have 
been kept as far as possible in advance of the enlargement for arching, for the 
purpose of draining and carrying the water outside of the material to be passed 
through. This he found necessary, as no timbering is able to stand the immense 
pressure of this material when fully saturated with water. These drifts or headings 
have been driven at his own expense. 

Notwithstanding the difficulties with which he has been, and is now, contend- 
ing, his progress has been very satisfactory. 

For the year ending Nov. i, 1866, he had completed 151 s/io 

For the year ending Nov. i, 1867, he had completed 354 5/10 

On the 2Sth day of June I received a communication from the consulting engi- 
neer of the governor and council, just as he was leaving for Europe, with plan reduc- 
ing the size of the Tunnel arch (26 x 26 feet) and diminishing the number of 
courses of brick as adopted by the first commission. As it was near the close of Mr. 
Farren's first contract, and as after Mr. Latrobe had left the country the material 
seemed to grow worse instead of better, as Mr. Latrobe had expected, no change 
was made. At a subsequent period the Commission considered the subject at 
North Adams, but no change was ordered. It was also voted, upon recommenda- 
tion of the consulting engineer, to repair the Haupt timber arch at convenience, the 
cost of which repair was estimated by him at $2,600. I failed, however, to get a 
responsible bid under $5,000, and I could not spare either my teams or men from 
the building of the tenements, cement and coal houses, and moving the cement 
and coal into them for winter. This matter well demands attention the com- 
ing spring. 

ADDITIONAL 

At the time that I found the water in the shaft — January, 1867 — I presented 
the question to the resident engineer, and subsequently to the Hon. James M. 
Shute, of an adit or drift between the west shaft, west heading and Farren's work, 
some 2,100 feet, to drain the water, and save the expense of pumping. We have 
now 1,199 fss^ to go. The time required to accomplish it was variously estimated 
at from eight months to a year. The suggestion met with a hearty endorsement 
from the Commission, but, as it might interfere somewhat with the contract of 
Mr. Farren, it was not then pressed. 



LIFE ^ND TIMES OF ^LVAH CROCKE%^ 107 

It was also very desirable to have the opinion of the consulting engineer upon 
it, who had given much attention to a shield in connection with the Farren work. 

This adit was subsequently brought to the attention of Mr. Latrobe, and met 
his sanction and approval, and a contract for 500 feet was taken by Mr. Farren in 
April, 1867. He had already completed 239 feet. This adit is 4 1/2 feet wide at 
the bottom, and 31/2 feet wide at the top, and about six feet high in the clear, 
above the drain; and, when finished, may take through small stone cars with from 
a yard to a yard and a half of the excavated rock. 



WELL NO. 4 

is one of a series of wells or test pits commenced in 1866. I found this one sunk 
103 3/10 feet; and I am informed that it was stopped by influx of water. I sug- 
gested the sinking of this well to grade, as long ago as June, in order to get two 
more faces for working the adit, should it be found necessary. It met the approval 
of the Commissioners, and, I believe, that of the consulting engineer. With the 
hope at first that we might get along without it, I delayed for the time; but the 
constant increase of water, both with Farren and at the West shaft, dissipating 
this hope, it was commenced September 23d, and up to December ist we had gone 
49 feet with 62 feet more to accomplish. 

We have, from this well, when down to grade, about 300 feet to go to meet 
the adit from the west shaft, and when this is accomplished it will make a material 
saving in lifting the west shaft water, as previously explained. 



THE ROUTE FOR THE TWO MILES OF RAILROAD TO 
NORTH ADAMS 

In the autumn of 1866, the consulting engineer suggested an improvement 
from former engineers' surveys in the two miles of railroad from the west end to 
the depot of the Troy and Greenfield Railroad at North Adams. 

It is understood that Mr. Manning, when at North Adams, surveyed a route 
in conformity to this suggestion, but believing that a better line could be obtained, 
I deferred making purchases of land until another survey could be made under my 
direction, which resulted in the location of a line leaving the Haupt tunnel lower or 
farther west, with a view to use the stone debris from the tunnel for embankment, 
and left a gravel bank between the line and Manning's, to be taken out as required, 
ad libitum, passing over the Boston and Albany Railroad by a bridge to a tract of 
meadow land, the refusal of which I have secured until the coming July for two 
hundred dollars per acre, with a contingent reserve, should the Hoosac River bed 
be changed, of about one hundred dollars more. The savings of land damages by 
this line is variously estimated, but will probably be not less than $75,000; while 
the other line affords but little room for depot purposes. This line has been ex- 



io8 LIFE ^ND TIMES OF zALVAH CROCKETi^ 

amined by Mr. A. R. Field, chief engineer of the Troy and Greenfield road, and is 
understood, in its main features, to meet his approval. It may be better to deviate 
easterly at the Haupt tunnel, but the westerly part of it must, by saving the 
destruction of property, dwelling-houses and other buildings as well as the great 
additional railroad facilities it will afford the growing business of North Adams, 
meet with approval. 

PNEUMATIC DRILLS 

Great credit is due to the former chairman of this commission for his persistent 
and unremitting efforts to develop and perfect a drill competent to bore the moun- 
tain, which have culminated in producing the best drill yet in use, at once a monu- 
ment to the genius of Mr. Burleigh, the inventor, and a credit to Massachusetts. 

Within a few days we have taken a machine drill from the heading that has 
been in constant use, without repair, for four weeks, having drilled in that time 
2,250 feet. The twelve drills ordered for the west shaft are now finished, and the 
carriages for the same nearly so. 



CEMENT AND COAL 

I purchased, under authority of the commission, 3,000 casks of cement in 
New York, at a cost, per cask, delivered in North Adams, of $1.75, cash; subse- 
quently, with no time to communicate with the others, I bought 2,000 casks more, 
at a cost of $2, on three months' time. I also purchased two thousand tons of best 
Lehigh coal, delivered in North Adams, at $7.45 per ton; also five hundred tons 
Pittston at $7 per ton. We have a sufficient quantity of this, housed for winter 
use. 

FURTHER PROGRESS OF THE WORK 

It is useless to speculate upon this, as the past aflFords no criterion by which 
to judge of the future. Our preparations at the east end and the west shaft, in- 
cluding efficient drilling-machines, ample power to work them continuously, and 
improved apparatus for hoisting and pumping (the latter of double the present 
needed capacity) are so nearly completed, that it seems safe to promise largely 
increased progress in the future. At the central shaft, through the unfortunate 
destruction of the buildings and machinery while in the hands of the contractors, 
a little delay will still be unavoidable. We shall profit, as far as possible, by the 
experience we have gained, in the erection of the new works, and in securing the 
best machinery for pumping and hoisting. It seems to me to be unwise to contract 
the work till the value of the preparations so long in progress, and so tedious to 
an impatient public, shall have been developed in the future advancement of the 
work. 



LIFE ^ND TIMES OF ^LVAH CROCKETi^_ 109 

Last spring we were ridiculed for promising one hundred feet per month, but 
even more has already been accomplished; and, with the convenient appliances 
we now have about completed, we will as easily accomplish at least one hundred 
and fifty feet per month. The central shaft, if it is arranged properly with steam 
drills, should be sunk at least fifty feet per month. 

NITROGLYCERINE 

The experiments made in the west shaft last year, as given by Mr. Doane, 
and referred to in the able report of Mr. Wentworth, chairman of the Tunnel 
Committee of that year, induced early action by the Commission. As long ago as 
February last, I visited New York, and spent several days in endeavoring to as- 
certain if the article had been made there, or in the vicinity, but to no purpose. 
Finding, subsequently, that the railroads refused absolutely to transport it, the 
matter rested until the first of July, when I addressed George W. Mowbray, Esq., 
of Titusville, operative chemist, and with the permission of the Commission he was 
called to North Adams, and a contract concluded with him highly advantageous 
to the Commonwealth. 

The price for which Professor Mowbray was to furnish a pure article was eighty 
cents per pound. As the Commission did not see fit to ratify the agreement, I 
turned over the same in August to Messrs. Dull, Gowan & White. After waiting 
until November, and finding that the contractors had done nothing, I again arranged 
with Professor Mowbray, as will appear in the Appendix, from which the public 
will be gratified to learn that we are on the eve of giving it a fair trial. 

FINANCIAL ORGANIZATION AND ACCOUNTS 

have been under the especial charge of the late chairman, Hon. James M. Shute, 
at Boston. 

Mr. Henry C. Cunningham, cashier, and Mr. Austin Pond, material clerk, 
are the same who held these offices at the close of last year, and they have filled 
them faithfully and well the present year. 

By the system adopted under the old Commission, the payroll and accounts 
being approved by the engineer or superintendent, the cashier took them to Boston 
each month, to be certified to by the Commission "that the charges for services 
rendered, labor performed, and material purchased were just and reasonable," 
more than one hundred and fifty miles distant. The cashier's expenses while away 
were very considerable, amounting to several hundred dollars annually. It is 
understood also that, to obviate the inconvenience of his absence, money was 
formerly placed in the hands of the engineer, to pay small bills. 

When I accepted the office of superintendent, as per my communication in 
June last, it was upon condition that the Boston ofiice should be abolished, and a 
cashier's bureau established at the place of doing business, where the money would 



no LIFE ^ND TIMES OF ^LVAH CROCKER 

go direct from the State treasury to the monthly pay-rolls and accounts, and be 
submitted to the Commission at monthly meetings at North Adams, prior to their 
approval. 

My convictions, after a six months' experience, have not changed as to the 
importance of this condition, and I most earnestly recommend that in future it 
be observed. 

IMPROVEMENT OF THE COMMON ROAD OVER THE MOUNTAIN 

This is only incidentally connected with the work. By such improvement, a 
great saving would accrue to the Commonwealth in the transportation of material. 
It is understood that the Troy and Boston road will appropriate something to it, 
and one spirited individual has offered to give five hundred dollars towards it. 
Both North Adams and Florida, the Vermont and Alassachusetts and the Fitchburg 
roads have a deep interest in this question. The stages could run from car to car, 
from Rice's to North Adams, in one and three-quarters hours, and express trains 
would accomplish the whole distance from Boston to the Hudson River in from 
eight to ten hours. 

MACHINERY AND MATERIAL 

have been purchased in Boston, Fall River, Lowell, Fitchburg, Worcester, Spring- 
field, Pittsfield, North Adams, etc. Other things being equal, preference has been 
given to the merchants and mechanics of our own Commonwealth. 

Old machinery and sundries which may be sold: 4 portable engines. 2 rotary 
pumps. 3 derricks. A large amount of paper pipe, and hydraulic press to test it. 
3 rain gauges, i small air compressor, i compressor partly finished. A large 
quantity of parts of machinery gears, patterns, etc. And almost fifty boxes of gun 
cotton. New buildings, tenements and additions, with new machinery: One barn 
at the east end. This barn was built by the contractors and paid for by the Com- 
monwealth. Fourteen tenements at the west shaft. One cement house, 84 x 20 
feet 12 feet high, capable of holding 2,000 barrels of cement, at the west end. Addi- 
tion to machine shop 20 x 20, two stories, with lathe, drill and planer, at west 
shaft, purchased this year. Glycerine magazine 16 x 16 feet, one story. One coal 
shed removed two miles to a suitable place, and has now stored in it 600 tons of 
Lehigh coal. 

I regret that I am unable to give in detail the lands owned by the Common- 
wealth, as I find no description of some of them as yet. 



LIFE ^ND TIMES OF ^LVAH CROCKETR^ 



III 



EXPENSES 

The following is a statistical account of expenses from the opening of the work 
under commissioners to January ist, 1868. 

The first column gives the whole expense, the second the expenses for one year, 
ending November ist, 1866, and the third for fourteen months to January ist, 1868: — 



Cost of Hoosac Tun- 
nel to Jan. ist. 186S 



Cost of Hoosac Tun- 
nel from Nov. ist, 
186s, to Nov. 1st, 
1866, 12 mos. 



Cost of Hoosac Tun- 
nel from Nov. ist, 
1866, to Jan. 1st, 
1868, 14 mos. 



Engineering Sup't, &c 

Deerfield Dam 

Excavation and Masonry at East 

End Dam 

Wheelpits and House 

Gates and Overflow 

Race or Canal 

East End Heading 

East End Enlargement 

East End Heading Enlargement . . 

Central Shaft 

West Shaft 

West Approach 

Building East End 

Central Shaft 

West End and Shaft . . . 

" General Account . . . . 

Machinery Deerfield Dam . . . . 

" East End 

Central Shaft 

West Shaft 

"End 

" General Account . . . 
Land and Right of Way 



^97.307-47 
127,666.65 

12,802.46 

73,023-49 
9,986.26 

23,74349 

203,117.86 

135,872.78 

17,710.96 

210,786.68 

298,113.89 

420,962.36 

31,453-10 

13,980.54 

41,038.20 

9,686.56 

10,820.93 

130,263.60 

59,137-89 

75,021-34 

576.84 

63,971-53 
19.595-25 



$32,086,640.13 



Deerfield Dam Less by amount of Bark sold 
Building East End Less by Rents credited . 



$24,840.58 
2,063.06 

266.60 

24,845.14 

566.53 

2,064.51 

71,305-57 

4,956-78 

58,898.17 
103,263.09 
113,106.13 

3,837-34 
2,406.40 

6,933-71 

1,842.98 

523.01 

66,494.59 

28,891.08 

20,723.11 

503-27 
43,673.08 

8,899-37 



$590,904.10 



$316.15 
235-89 



$12,466.99 



2,300.26 

325-95 

99,386.41 

55,555-68 

151.50 

66,362.93 

119,072.20 

173,061.61 

1,953-71 

1,028.07 

149.19 

43,231.22 
7,773-88 

17,909.61 

36-95 

1,370-77 

2,082.04 



$604,218.97 



552.04 



$603,666.93 



If the Report I have submitted is not as full and accurate in its details as might 
be wished, or if errors have unconsciously crept in, it must be borne in mind that 



112 LIFE ^ND TIMES OF ^LVAH CROCKETi^ 

I have acted as superintendent only six months. The late chief engineer acted 
until January, and Paul Hill, Esq., as superintendent at the east end until June. 

I beg, in closing, to express my thanks to Messrs. Brown, Bond, Granger, Ellis 
and Pratt, for their fidelity to the interests of the Commonwealth, in their various 
departments; also to the Hon. James M. Shute, late chairman of the Board, and 
the Hon. Charles Hudson, for the assistance they have rendered me. 

ALVAH CROCKER, 

Commissioner in charge of the work. 
North Adams, Jan. 15, 1868. 

♦SPEECH ON INLAND NAVIGATION 
Mr. Speaker. 

I should do myself gross injustice & my own immediate Constituency did I 
not say a word upon this Bill — Four States, at least, Florida, Alabama, Georgia & 
South Carolina though the immediate recipients of benefits are not the only benefi- 
ciaries—True; they can move their Cotton, Sugar & Rice to St. Louis the Great 
Central Entrepot for their products East or West but the great grain growing states 
of the Mississippi Valley will profit equally by the saving of the transport of their 
cereals & other products in return — Sir it is literally impossible to scan the immense 
benefit of this inland navigation. It can no more be mathematically calculated, 
than the benefits that have accrued to this country from the Erie Canal aye Sir & 
to the world also — When Sir, I look to a connection of this sort between the Atlantic 
& the great centre of the Mississippi Valley, When Sir I view its effects consider 
the commercial blessings which it confers upon a great people, the interchange 
of commodities binding us together like as one body by ties of commerce, interest 
& friendships, I can hardly wait for the time consumed in its accomplishment — 
Sir, with the cheap breadstuffs of the West the production of cotton now nearly 
half of the products of the country would be doubled as well as Rice & Sugar — 
There is not Sir a single State in our broad Union that would not feel its quickening 
impulse Aye Sir clear to the Pacific, Aye Aye Sir to the cold North to Massachusetts 
Sir, for our cold climate does not affect our hearts, they beat as strongly, are as 
warm for our Southern brethren as for ourselves — Sir, I do not propose to argue 
the details of this question they are too self evident. We have done much for open- 
ing our great thoroughfares West poured out Aye Sir literally poured out there 
our money & land. — Now Mr. Speaker let us show the same liberality to the 
South & when too it will do more for them than ever before — If we are going to make 
ourselves a united people it must be by such acts as these. In the construction 
of the Tunnel & Lake Champlain Lines from Boston, I have an autograph letter 
from Gen'l Winfield Scott saying that could they have been built before the War of 
1812 the money saved in the transportation of troops & munitions of War would 
have built the Lines — Sir the Tunnel Line not even yet finished has increased the 

*No record of this speech was found in the Congressional Record. The manuscript was discovered among his papers. 



LIFE '^ND TIMES OF ^LVAH CROCKETi^ 113 

Value of Northern Massachusetts more than 100 Millions of dollars and this too 
by Railroad transportation how much more this 1500 miles of canal in a country 
in which it can be used almost the whole year instead of 7/i2ths of a year — with 
only a cost of transportation of 2 or 3 Mills per ton per Mile. Sir Let us foster 
in every part of our Land our immense resources, Let no rancor malice or jealousy 
tear us asunder; but united let us stand by each other. Then Sir shall our progress 
be rapid, Education have all the aid that increasing wealth can give it and that 
proud flag behind you Sir float in pride & triumph until the Morn of eternity. 

DESCRIPTION OF THE PROFILE VIEW OF HOOSAC TUNNEL 

Shown on a preceding page 

HOOSAC TUNNEL 

Total Length 25081 Feet 

From West End to Central Shaft 12244 Feet 

From Central Shaft to East End 12837 Feet 

Located in Northwestern Massachusetts on line of Troy and Greenfield R.R. 
constructed by Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Manager, J. Prescott; Chief 
Engineer, W. P. Granger; Treasurer, Austin Bond; Secretary, Ewd. Hamilton. 

Grade at portals, 766 Feet above tide water 

" per mile from portals to central shaft 26.40 ft. 

Road chartered in 1848 

First work of tunneling commenced 185 1 

Opened by Commonwealth of Massachusetts up to 

beginning of Shanly contract Jan. 1869 East End 

5283 Feet, West End 4055 Ft. Central Shaft sunk 583 ft. 

Total length of tunnel opened by F. Shanly & Co. 

Montreal, 15743 feet 

Surveys made and present tunnel line estab- 
lished by Thos Doane C. E. in 1863 

Distance from Boston to tunnel 136 Miles 

through " 4K" 

" tunnel " Troy 50 " 

Total " Boston " " 191 " 

Engineers employed by Commonwealth of Mass- 
achusetts during Shanly contract 

Ch ief Engineer Chief Assistants 

B D Frost F. D. Fisher in charge at West End 

A. W. Locke " " " East " 

C. O. Wederkinch " " " Central Shaft 



114 LIFE ^ND TIMES OF ^LVAH CROCKETi^ 

Total Length of brick arching 7573 Feet 

Average thickness of arch, 6 rings or 2 " 

West summit above tunnel '. 1718 " 

East " " " 1429 " 

First train of cars passed through tunnel Feb. 9th 1875 

" passenger train " " " from Boston 

to Troy, Oct. 13 th 1875 

First through freight from the West, consisting of 22 
carloads of grain, passed through tunnel Apr. 5th 1875 over 
Fitchburg R.R. consigned to J. Gushing & Co. Fitchburg, Mass. 

Depth of Central Shaft 1028 Feet 

" " West " 318 " 

West Shaft partly filled 

Central Shaft remaining open for purpose of 

ventilating tunnel 

Size of West Shaft 10-14 size of Central Shaft 15-27 

Amount of water Running through Drain out West End of Tunnel 600 Gall. 

Pr. Min. 

Amount of water Running through Drain out East End of Tunnel 100 Gall. 

Pr. Min. 
The principal explosive employed was tri nitro 
glycerine of which 434,755 Lbs. were used during Shanly Contract 



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